Need space? You can now buy 7 billion year old stardust and pieces of the moon and Mars

If you are looking for an unusual gift for Valentine’s Day, an auction house offers rare meteorite pieces from the Moon, March and beyond – for as low as $ 250.

In an online sale starting Tuesday, February 9, Christie’s auction house is auctioning 72 meteorites – solid pieces of debris from celestial objects like comets and asteroids that arrive on Earth as shooting Stars, somehow managing to survive their journey through our atmosphere to land on the surface.

“The weight of every known meteorite is less than the world’s annual gold production, and this sale offers spectacular examples for every collector, available at estimates ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars,” wrote the house of auction on its website.

The collection includes a meteorite containing 7 billion year old stardust, space gems encased in iron, and the fourth largest moon slice. A big piece of Martian rock, estimated to be worth between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000, contains bubbles from the planet’s atmosphere trapped inside.

According to Christie’s, there are a dozen samples of the moon and March, and another dozen previously hosted by famous museums around the world.

“Everyone has a picture in their heads of what a meteorite ‘should look like’ – an alien body heated by friction while hitting Earth’s atmosphere,” said James Hyslop, head of science and natural history at Christie’s, in a statement. “Rarely do the objects surviving this fiery descent resemble this shared ideal seen in this meteorite. It is a wonder to see and an honor to be entrusted with its sale.

One item in the collection never touched the ground – a young boy in Morocco found the meteorite in the branches of a tree a day after a meteor shower – it is worth between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars. Yet another came from America’s biggest meteor shower in Odessa, Texas, and is expected to fetch between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.

“If there was a time to be in awe of the endless night sky, we live there, but if you want to inspire and see the eyes go wide – touch a meteorite,” said curator Darryl Pitt.

The auction house said one of the highlights of the sale is a 16-pound “highly aesthetic stone meteorite”, valued at $ 50,000 to $ 80,000.

“Unlike 99% of all other meteorites, this meteorite did not tip or invert while dipping on Earth but maintained a stable orientation throughout its descent,” the auction house said. “The surface facing Earth features elongated flight marks that radiate outward in this compelling alien aerodynamic form.”

Meteorites have been found all over the world, from the Sahara Desert to Chile to Russia.

The “Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites” auction is running until February 23 and interested buyers located in New York can view them in person by appointment.