FASCINATED children got to grips with rare moon rocks and meteorites dating back billions of years this week.

Youngsters at Trimdon Junior School in Trimdon Village, County Durham, enjoyed a unique opportunity to hold real pieces of space, including a 1.2 billion-year-old piece of Mars and a 4.3-billion-year-old nickel meteorite.

The awestruck children learned these were the oldest object they would ever hold and described the experience as “awesome” and “flabbergasting.”

The priceless lunar samples were provided by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (Stfc)and have now been returned.

They were collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s during some of NASA’s first manned space missions to the moon.

Angela Davidson, school science co-ordinator, said: “This was an amazing opportunity for our children.

“When you go to a museum you are told not to touch but the children were encouraged to hold and smell the samples and examine them under the microscope.

“I like our children to think of themselves as the scientists of tomorrow.”

Stfc’s chief executive Officer, Professor John Womersley, said “This is a great opportunity for young people to be able to see, touch and really experience such important and exciting messengers from space –turning science fiction into science fact.”