Moon dust stolen from museum

Four tiny grains of moon dust brought to Earth by the first manned lunar mission were stolen from a space exhibit in Stockholm, a museum official said today.

The dust was collected by astronauts during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 and presented to Sweden as a gift by US President Richard Nixon a year later.

The Swedish Museum of Natural History displayed the grains in a coin-sized capsule inside a stainless steel cylinder capped with a glass plate, museum spokesman Goeran Adenskog said. The 1mm particles were the thickness of a paper clip.

Museum staff noticed Tuesday morning that the glass plate had been smashed and the capsule removed, Adenskog said.

Police have dropped the investigation for lack of clues, he said.

“We don’t think it has any commercial value when the moon dust has been taken out of its context,” Adenskog said. “Without documentation it is very difficult for a layman to determine whether its moon dust or earth dust.”