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Lot
49050

FROM THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: END PIECE [A]-DAR AL GANI (DaG) 1058 . Lunar breccia - LUN . Libya - (27° 22' 30"N, 16°...

2012 October 14 Natural History Signature Meteorite Auction - New York #6089

Sold for: Not Sold Not Sold
Auction Ended On: Oct 14, 2012
Item Activity: 0 Internet/mail/phone bidders Number of Bidders
812 page views
Location: Ukrainian Institute of America at The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion
2 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10075

Description:
FROM THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: END PIECE [A]-DAR AL GANI (DaG) 1058
Lunar breccia - LUN
Libya - (27° 22' 30"N, 16° 11' 4"E)
In the event Lot 49049 does not sell, the individual end pieces will be separately offered.

116 x 231 x 35mm (4.5 x 9 x 1.4 inches) and 1096.47 grams (2.42 pounds)

Estimate: $260,000-$290,000

INTRODUCTION TO LUNAR METEORITES - The following six lots are portions of the Moon authenticated by renowned scientists. Lunar samples are readily identified by their highly specific geological, mineralogical, chemical and radiation signatures. Lunar minerals were formed in a weak gravitational field, absence of water, with no free oxygen, and have been altered through exposure to cosmic radiation. The minerals comprising the Moon's crust are limited. Lunar specimens contain gases originating from the solar wind with isotope ratios that are markedly different than the same gases found on Earth (also a result of cosmic radiation).

When asteroids strike the Moon's surface, chunks of the Moon are launched into space in much the same way that dust is launched into the air when a child dives onto a bed. One merely needs to view the craters of the Moon to imagine the number of asteroids whose impact would have provided sufficient energy to eclipse the Moon's gravitational influence and launch surface material into space.

Less than 0.1% of all meteorites recovered are lunar in origin, with less than 150 pounds of meteorites originating from the Moon known to exist. Lunar meteorites are so scarce, and so difficult to identify, that not one example has ever been found in Europe, or either of the American continents. Every single lunar meteorite recovery to date has been from a desert where such meteorites are more readily identified (including the cold desert of Antarctica, where precipitation is negligible).

Of the 79 distinct lunar meteorites known, 20 were found by scientists searching in Antarctica. Owned by a consortium of countries, not one gram of Antarctic material will ever be available to the private sector. (Nor will the U.S. government ever release a single gram of the 380 kg of Moon rocks recovered by Apollo astronauts.)

Moving onto the fourth largest lunar meteorite known to exist, Dar al Gani (DaG) 1058 - the larger piece of the Moon to grace a public offering.

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