A piece of the moon for sale for $ 1 million

Already sold by Sotheby's in 1993 for $ 445,000, Moon's fragments have an estimated value of between $ 700,000 and $ 1 million. These are the only fragments of the satellite that can be sold legally.

The pieces – a fragment of basalt, similar to most volcanic rocks on Earth, and surface debris known as the regolith – are sold by an unidentified private American collector who bought them in 1993.

The lunar rocks are expected to reach between $ 700,000 and $ 1 million (£ 547,715 to £ 782,450, 986,062 to $ 1,409,000) when they will be auctioned on November 29th.

According to Sotheby's, the auctioned sample was ceremoniously presented to Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, widow of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, one of the first designers and directors of the Soviet Space Program in the 1950s and 1960s.

Moon samples collected by the Soviet Union and the United States have generally remained in the hands of the government and the laws prevent only public gifts – such as moon samples offered to other countries by the government. Nixon administration – be transferred to individuals.

It is "extremely rare" that genuine lunar samples are put on public sale, Sotheby's said.

Security alert on drones falling from the sky after power outages
The incidents involved flying machines "falling directly to the ground", according to the regulator. Some of the drones were damaged, but no injuries or material damage were reported.

The space shuttle brought back about 100 g of lunar rock and Mare Fecunditatis dust.

Luna 16 was also the first probe to land in the dark.

The floor of descent from the spacecraft was equipped with a video camera, radiation and temperature monitors, a telecommunication equipment and a drilling rig.

Three tiny rocks, the only known documented pieces of the Moon in private hands, hit the auction block next month. The United States took samples of the lunar soil during the Apollo 11-17 missions, while the USSR (to which the Russian Federation had succeeded) gathered them during the Luna-16, -20 and -M missions. 24.

They are packed under the glbad under an adjustable lens and labeled "-16". [SOIL PARTICLES FROM LUNA-16]& # 39 ;. The tests show that they contain more than 70 elements and are dated about 3.4 billion years old.