MAN may have landed on the moon in 1969 but the moon landed in Chorley for the first time this week.

Holy Cross Catholic High School science teacher Kate Cree arranged for moon rocks, from the Apollo moon landing space missions and meteorite samples to be brought to the school to bring their science lessons to life.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Both the students, staff and feeder primary schools were enthralled by the week-long loan of the pieces with the oldest one, a staggering 4.6 billion-years-old.

Assistant head of science, Mrs Cree said: “It’s an amazing experience for the students.

“These samples belong to Nasa and the National History Museum and they loan them to schools for educational purposes. They are actual items brought back from the Apollo missions in the 1970s and the students got the chance to hold the moon rock and the meteorite samples, which have come from the asteroid belt, and study them.

“The astronauts could only bring back about 300 kilos of moon rock and most of it is with NASA so it shows how special this is, that they have come to our school.

“In museums you just have to look at these through glass but it’s a unique chance for our students to hold a piece of the moon and feel it – it’s about bringing science to life for them, they can see structure, and hopefully it will inspire them.”

The samples have been carefully looked after while in Chorley where the school had to have a security visit before they arrived, with a special courier delivering the samples and collecting them.

“When not in use, they had to be kept in a secure environment with only two members of staff allowed to access them,” said Mrs Cree. “It was extremely stringent. They had to remain within the sight of one of us at all times during school hours.”

The students at Holy Cross have also been studying the solar system using a computer programme called Moonzoo – an ongoing science project which shows live images of the moon.

“The students get the chance to study the surface of the moon though the live feed and answer questions such as is it a boulder or a crater and all the data is fed back to a central point, so they are contributing to ongoing science data which is incredible, said Mrs Cree.

“It just goes to show that you don’t have to have a PHD or be in a laboratory to be involved in science research.”