Breaking Down

It’s been more than four decades since the last Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon. Yet scientists are still probing the treasure trove of rocks and soil the astronauts brought back. A few years ago, for example, they discovered that water permeates the soil across much of the lunar surface.
But a recent report suggests that it’s getting harder to learn from the lunar samples, because the samples are changing. Water seeping into their storage containers may be causing some of the soil samples to break down. As the report puts it, “the ... soils are literally crumbling to dust.”
Clockwise from top left: Orange soil found by Apollo 17 astronauts; Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin scoops up soil; a soil container in the labThe six Apollo missions brought 842 pounds of rock and soil back to Earth. Thousands of tiny samples have been sent to researchers around the world for analysis. But hundreds of pounds are still in storage, waiting for scientists to develop new tools and techniques fo