978-1-4222-3418-1

Tales From the Field!

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Moon Rocks! he Moon is a giant rock, so it made sense that a geologist should study it. Geology is the study of rocks and minerals, on Earth and other places. In 1965, Harrison Schmitt (on the Moon at left) was one of the first scientist-astronauts. Schmitt was working as a geologist in 1964 when he applied to be an astronaut. He had worked with another rocks expert from NASA and was inspired to try to get to the Moon. He was selected and went through a year of training. Schmitt had to learn survival techniques, how rockets worked, and many other astronaut skills. He didn’t learn to fly the rocket, however!

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND biochemist a scientist who studies the chemistry of living things carbon dioxide the type of gas that is in the air that we breathe out pulsars a type of distant star that sends out radio waves

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