Chunk of moon rock weighing nearly 30lbs that was blasted off the lunar surface by an asteroid and fell to Earth as a meteorite is expected to fetch £2 million at auction
- The lunar meteorite blasted from the lunar surface after an asteroid collision
- The Moon rock fell to Earth in the Sahara desert and was found two years ago
- Lunar meteorites are among the rarest and most valuable substances on Earth
A 30lbs piece of the Moon – larger than anything returned to Earth by NASAs Apollo astronauts – is up for sale and it could fetch as much as £2 million.
Christie’s auction house have the rare rock up for sale and they say it is the fifth largest lunar meteorite in existence that is up for private sale.
The rock was blasted from the surface of the Moon by an asteroid or comet colliding with the lunar surface – this sent it hurtling through space to land on Earth.
It was found in the Sahara desert two years ago and with only 1433lbs of lunar meteorites known to exist – it’s one of the most valuable substances on the planet.
Christie’s auction house have the rare rock up for sale and they say it is the fifth largest lunar meteorite in existence that is up for private sale
This particular meteorite, named NWA 12691, was part of a large meteorite shower straddling the Western Saharan, Algerian and Mauritanian borders.
The exact date is unknown but the shower was responsible for nearly half of all known lunar meteorites discovered on Earth.
Approximately 30 different meteorites were collected, analysed, classified and assigned different NWA numbers from that shower.
This was in the belief they might be from different events and represent different lunar samples but it’s now thought they all came from the same lunar impact event.
James Hyslop, Christie’s Head of Science & Natural History said the sheer size of this rock ‘bowls him over’ every time he sees it in the warehouse.
‘It is so much larger than anything else that has ever been offered before. The experience of holding a piece of another world in your hands is something you never forget,’ Hyslop said.
Scientists identify Moon rocks by their specific textural, mineralogical, chemical and isotopic signatures.
The rock was blasted from the surface of the Moon by an asteroid or comet colliding with the lunar surface – this sent it hurtling through space to land on Earth
Many of the common minerals found on Earth are rare or absent on the Moon, while some lunar minerals are unknown on Earth.
In addition, Moon rocks contain gases captured from the solar wind with isotope ratios very different from the same gases found on Earth.
“It is an order of magnitude larger than any other lunar meteorite we’ve sold,” Hyslop said.
“All previous examples would have been able to fit in your hand, but this is over 10 times larger.”
The largest lunar rock brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts was a specimen nicknamed ‘Big Muley’ – it was returned by Apollo 16 in 1972 and weighted 26lbs.
Scientists don’t agree on how the Moon formed but many believe it was the result of an impact between Earth and another planet
Many researchers believe the moon formed after Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago.
This is called the giant impact hypothesis.
The theory suggests the moon is made up of debris left over following a collision between our planet and a body around 4.5 billion years ago.
The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, after the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the moon.
Many researchers believe the moon formed after Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago. This is called the giant impact hypothesis
But one mystery has persisted, revealed by rocks the Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon: Why are the moon and Earth so similar in their composition?
Several different theories have emerged over the years to explain the similar fingerprints of Earth and the moon.
Perhaps the impact created a huge cloud of debris that mixed thoroughly with the Earth and then later condensed to form the moon.
Or Theia could have, coincidentally, been chemically similar to young Earth.
A third possibility is that the moon formed from Earthen materials, rather than from Theia, although this would have been a very unusual type of impact.