The queen, who took part in the discussion of Windsor Castle, was also told of a meteorite that landed on British soil last Sunday, the first to be found in the UK in 30 years.
A family has found a 300g fragment of the meteorite that survived the fiery passage through Earth’s atmosphere and ended up on their driveway in the small town of Winchcombe in Cotswold.
Prof Smith, professor of earth sciences and chief curator of meteorites at the Natural History Museum, told the monarch that it was a “heavenly opportunity” for research and described how the pieces were put together by the museum.
“I’m glad it did not hit anyone,” she said.
The discussion was hosted on Wednesday by space scientist and broadcaster Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, days after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a series of damaging allegations about the royal family in their Oprah Winfrey interview.
This comes when the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, continued his recovery from a heart procedure at King Edward VII Hospital in London, where he was first admitted on 16 February.
Dr Aderin-Pocock asked the Queen about her encounter with Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin at Buckingham Palace in 1961, shortly after his historic space mission.
“How was he?” she asked. “Russians,” the royal reply came to much laughter.
The queen added: ‘He did not speak English. But no no, he was fascinating. ‘
Dr Aderin-Pocock said it must have been scary to be the first person in space, and not really know what was going to happen.