Scientists Just Discovered an Exotic New Element in Apollo-Era Moon Dust

Science has come a long way since NASA launched the Apollo 17 mission. Over the last 50 years, researchers have developed advanced technologies and techniques that far surpass those available in 1972.

This progress is exactly what NASA was hoping for when the Apollo 17 astronauts—the last humans to set foot on the Moon—returned to Earth with more than 2,000 samples of lunar rock and dust. Some were squirreled away in the hopes that one day, better-equipped scientists could study the samples…