THE widow of astronaut Neil Armstrong has given a bag full of equipment used by her husband during the Moon landing to the Smithsonian in the United States after finding it in a closet.

    Carol Armstrong found the mysterious bag after her husband’s death in 2012, and saw that the space pioneer had kept personal mementos which were supposed to be left on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

    The gear was later confirmed to be from the most famous space flight of all time after Mrs Armstrong got in touch with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where the items are now on loan.

    The first man to walk on the Moon made no mention of his bag, stored in a closet in his Ohio house, for the more than 40 years between the Apollo 11 mission and his death, according to Gizmodo.com.

    Alan Needdell, curator of the Air and Space Museum, gathered a team of experts from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal to go through records and confirm that the items were genuinely from the historic mission.

    The bag, known as a purse, includes the 16mm movie camera and 10mm lens that first shot Apollo 11’s descent to the Moon’s surface through a window on the lunar module.

    Armstrong had kept almost 20 keepsakes from the journey, including tools, helmet straps and cables taken aboard the Lunar Module Eagle for the landing.

    The items donated by the astronaut’s second wife were supposed to be left behind on the lunar surface, according to the Smithsonian.

    There are records of Apollo 11’s astronauts mentioning the so-called McDivitt purse, named in honor of Apollo 9 Commander Jim McDivitt, during their journey.

    “That [is] just a bunch of trash that we want to take back — LM parts, odds and ends,” Armstrong said after he and Aldrin returned to the command module orbiting the moon.

    The astronauts estimated that it held 10 pounds(4.5 kg).

    In one exchange Aldrin told Armstrong that lunar dust on his suit may be rubbing off on the purse.

    The most valuable object in the hidden trove of artifacts is the camera, which was called the “Data Acquisition Camera” and mounted on the lunar module.

    It captured the astronauts climbing down a ladder to the Moon’s surface and planting the U.S. flag.

    Netting used to protect equipment from free-floating objects was also among Armstrong’s personal souvenirs.(SD-Agencies)