A meteorite struck doghouse sold for AED 161,616 at an auction

In April 2019, a doghouse was struck by a meteorite, complete with a hole in the roof has recently been sold in an online Christie’s auction of rare meteorites.

The former resident of the doghouse is a German Shepherd named Roky, which was projected to be the second most valuable item in the annual sale, titled “Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites.”

It was estimated to be sold at $300,000 (AED1.1m), but it did not meet expectations, selling for just $44,000 (AED161,616).

Before 9:07 p.m. on April 23, 2019, it was just the home of Roky, who was living with its owners in the city of Aguas Zarcas, Costa Rica. But then a meteorite struck it, narrowly missing the dog.

The meteorite itself was not included in the lot, but it was part of the auction, selling for around a third of its high estimate at $21,000 (AED77,135).

Why is the doghouse, which is made of pressed wood with a very rusty tin roof, more valuable than the meteorite itself?

“Objects hit by meteorites are extraordinarily rare (as an event it is astronomically unlikely). We are aware of only a handful of these objects in private hands,” explained James Hyslop, head of the science and natural history department at Christie’s, in an email.

Meteorites, space rocks that land on our planet’s surface, are very rare as well: About 500 reach Earth each year, but fewer than 10 are recovered, according to the Planetary Science Institute.

They rarely strike anything, most often landing in the ocean or remote areas, so objects that do get hit become valuable as a consequence. 

Also among the items in the sale was a lunar rock advertised as a “complete slice of the Moon,” which was the largest lunar meteorite ever found when it was discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2007, and a slice of the Fukang meteorite, a 4.5 billion-year-old space rock found in China in 2000.

Source: Agencies

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