The Best Gift of All: A Box of Moon Soil

Astrochemist Jamie Elsila, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, unwraps pristine Moon soil. Apollo 17 astronauts collected it in 1972 by driving tubes down to 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) below the Moon’s surface and pulling out soil that they vacuum-sealed inside the tube right on the Moon. That tube had never been opened … until recently. Read more: In this video, Elsila and her colleagu