[Rockhounds] Christie's auction: Kennel hit by meteorite goes on sale

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

*A chunk of Mars, some of the space rock that splattered a quiet English
town and a dog kennel pierced by an object that came out of the sky.*

All three items go under the hammer on Wednesday when London auction house
Christie's holds its annual sale of rare and unusual meteorites
<https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact-martian-lunar-other-rare-meteorites/lots/2134>
.

Lots in the online auction are expected to fetch well in excess of £2m
($2.7m).

UK interest will be on a 15g fragment of the meteorite that fell over the
Cotswold town of Winchcombe last year.

It could go for up to £50,000 ($70,000) - or more than 70 times the value
of its weight in gold.

It will be among the largest pieces ever to be held in private hands.


The Winchcombe meteorite is regarded scientifically as the most important
meteorite ever to be recovered in the UK.

It's what's known as a CM2 carbonaceous chondrite and contains chemistry
that existed at the formation of the Solar System some 4.6 billion years
ago.

The vast majority of what was collected in and around Winchcombe - over 90%
of it - is in the UK's national collection, curated by London's Natural
History Museum.


https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60468427