BOSTON (AP) – Anyone who can’t make it to the moon to gather a few lunar rocks now has the opportunity to buy one right here on Earth.
A 12-pound (5.5 kilogram) lunar meteorite discovered in northwest Africa last year is up for auction by Boston-based RR Auction and could sell for $500,000 or more at the online auction that runs from Thursday until Oct. 18.
The rock classified as NWA 11789 was found last year in a remote area of Mauritania but may have plunged to Earth thousands of years ago.
The meteorite is actually composed of six fragments that fit together like a puzzle.
Geoff Notkin, star of television’s “Meteorite Men” and CEO of Aerolite Meteorites, which is selling the rock, says most lunar meteorites are the size of a walnut, so this one is “extraordinarily unusual.”
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