English: A slice of moon rock available at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution for visitors to touch. Taken back to Earth by Apollo 17. This lunar sample was cut from a rock collected on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. Found near the landing site in the Valley of Taurus-Littrow, it is an iron-rich, fine-textured volcanic rock called basalt. It is nearly 4 billion years old.