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Ashley Hunter, BCE Publishing, Inc.
Wednesday, June 18 was a special day for Monticello; the day the Moon was presented at the Jefferson County Library in Monticello.
With the kind permission of NASA, two transparent discs containing various lunar and meteoritic samples were exposed at the library during a space reception from 12 pm to 1 pm
The reception attracted adults and children, all who were interested in taking a closer look at the rock and soil samples. "The reception of these samples lasted a month," said Library Director Natalie Bender. "It's obviously a very rare and special event for Jefferson County."
Obtaining lunar rocks at Monticello was certainly not an easy or quick feat; In order for NASA to release the samples, there must be a certified lunar manipulator to take care of the samples and take responsibility for them.
The youth librarian (and Certified Educator) Courtney Nicolou has completed training hours to receive the required certification. bring the rocks to Monticello. From there, rocks and soil samples had to be protected during public appearances and during storage. 
Captain Mack Norton of the Monticello Police Department provided security for the Space Rock reception. When it is not exposed, the rocks must be stored in a vault of one of the banks of Monticello
During the reception, Nicolou shared some of the interesting information that she has learned during his training, as well as facts about lunar rocks.
According to Nicolou, the lunar samples that were visiting Monticello were samples collected during the Apollo 11 mission, which means that the samples were collected in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The meteorite samples were collected by NASA scientists in Antarctica.
Nicolou also shared about the Space Launch System (SLS), which is built to bring human explorers to Mars, and the International Space Station. rocks, NASA has sent three different terrestrial rocks to examine and compare to different space rocks. One of the rock samples from the Earth, a large sample of Basalt, also had a copy of the Moon.
Everyone was invited to take a magnifying glass and examine the lunar, meteoric and rock samples and compare the differences and similarities of the substances. 
A third piece included by NASA was a vial of moon dust. The dark, powdery dust that covers the moon is smooth and silky, but it's as thin as glass. Dust was a problem for astronauts because they cut their boots and caused malfunctions with the equipment.
"Right now, everything that happens on the surface of the moon is destroyed by this thing." After a brief period of questions and answers, Nicolou recounted how the majority of his training as a handler 
consisted of understand the importance of keeping samples secure.
"Men and women died in expeditions to get these rocks to help us better understand the space, so we have to treat them like treasures because they really are, "Nicolou said, climbing one at a time and looking closely at the rocks, a young participant, Anthony Williams, noted the similarities between the rocks of the Earth and the rocks of
"They (the rocks) looked alike," said Williams, "A black (rock) looked like coal." Lunar and meteoric samples were in Monticello for a little over a week before leaving today p to be returned to NASA. There were weekly rock screenings and the library offered private tours to interested groups.
