A new exhibition at the Montreal Science Centre allows visitors to touch a genuine piece of moon rock.

The specimen, on loan from NASA, is the 10th of its kind to be put on display in museums around the world.

"It was really a privilege," said Cybèle Robichaud, director of programming for the Science Centre, located at Montreal's Old Port.

The moon rock is nearly four billion years old and was collected in 1972, during the last mission to the moon — Apollo 17. When the centre first contacted NASA, it never expected to get a sample of moon rock that people were actually allowed to put their hands on. 

Read more