Rare samples of moon rock and lunar dust landed at Dalziel High School, Motherwell on Monday for a week's visit. Meteorites of different kinds have also formed part of a display and students have been able to handle and study them, seeing the obvious differences in materials they were made from.

The lunar samples, provided by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities council were collected during NASA's manned space missions to the Moon in the late 1960's and early 1970's. During these missions the Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth 382 kilograms of lunar material. Most of this material is used by scientists to study the moon, but NASA decided to use a small proportion of the rock and soil to develop lunar and planetary sciences education packages.

Science and Technology Facilities Council Chief Executive, Professor Keith Mason said "It's incredible to think, that when you hold a meteorite, you are handling something that may have travelled millions of miles to fall on the earth. Meteorites can tell us a great deal about the places they originated from."

He added "It's amazing that almost forty years after the lunar samples we collected, scientists are still not sure how the moon formed! All this year, UK Scientists will be studying the moon to see what it is made of as part of Smart-1, Europe's first robotic mission to the moon."

The Council offers a free of charge, short term loan system of the lunar samples to education and scientific organisations within the UK.