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.

The moon rock is on loan from NASA for the next five years. (CBC)

She said that the museum's application likely got a boost from a certain Canadian astronaut who is now serving as Canada's governor general.

"The letter of support from Julie Payette, our director at the time, really helped," said Robichaud.

Payette was the CEO of the Montreal Science Centre for three years before her appointment to Rideau Hall.

The rock will be on display at the Science Centre for at least five years.

Project leader Sara Arsenault travelled to the NASA vaults to collect the rock and bring it back to Canada. (Montreal Science Centre)

Robichaud said since its launch Friday, visitors have been "surprised and amazed by this possibility they have to touch the moon."

The team's project leader, Sara Arsenault, had to travel to Houston, Texas, to get the rock from NASA's vaults and bring it back to Canada in an inconspicuous container — in this case, a lunch box.

"For the custom officers, when you have something like a lunchbox, they want to know what's inside. So I had to say many, many times, 'I have a moon rock,'" Arsenault said.

"They were not ready for that."

The rock is on display and visitors are allowed to reach out and touch it inside its glass casing. (CBC)

One museum visitor, Caroline Viger, saw the same kind of moon rock displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

"What's special is not only that it's old because it came from the moon, but also there's the Apollo mission behind it and the people who brought it back," she said. "It's all the technology that's behind it, all the innovation."

"It's not an easy rock to get."