At a Christie's auction, bids on a scrappy dog house did what a meteorite had done three years ago: They went through the roof.
The rusty, corrugated tin shelter — with a gaping seven-inch hole on top — went for US$44,100 earlier this week, more than double the amount fetched by the extraterrestrial rock that blasted through it. Meanwhile, an extremely rare auction lot — billed as the third-largest Martian rock on Earth and valued at up to US$800,000 — failed to find a buyer when the sale closed on Feb. 23.
The dog house's sale may reveal something about what drives private collectors to possess the rare objects that fall to Earth from outer space. Beyond their ancient ages and the distance they've traveled is the notion of a close call: Something unexpected and otherworldly fell from the sky, and, in doing so, showed its potential for destruction.
In some cases, the reminder of that power is more valuable than the rubble itself.
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"It's incredibly unlikely for [a meteorite] to actually hit something that's in our day-to-day lives."
"It's incredibly unlikely for [a meteorite] to actually hit something that's in our day-to-day lives," James Hyslop, head of scientific instruments, globes, and natural history at Christie's, told Mashable.
The story behind the dog house began at 9:07 p.m. on April 23, 2019, according to its record in the Meteoritical Bulletin, a publication of peer-reviewed meteorites. That night, a meteorite shower pelted a rainforest in central Costa Rica. Cameras at the summits of volcanoes captured the fireball, an unusually bright meteor. A chunk weighing close to two-thirds of a pound crashed into a German shepherd's abode. Coincidentally, his name was "Roky."
The Brazilian Meteors Observation Network, University of Sao Paulo, and Sao Paulo State University figured out the trajectory of the meteorite, dubbed "Arguas Zarcas," by reviewing four security videos and dashcam cameras.
A note to concerned dog lovers: Roky survived the ordeal in better shape than his house.
Appraising these astronomical objects at auction has more to do with a gut feeling, Hyslop admits. The only data Christie's had to guide it was a meteorite-dented mailbox from Claxton, Georgia, that sold for US$83,000 in 2007.
A few years ago, Hyslop attended a meteorite exhibition in Paris. Outside in a glass box was a Chevy Malibu that had been struck by the Peekskill meteorite in 1992.
"I just thought that was such a great bit of theater," he said. "It's not just these meteorites that capture our minds. I mean, we all know the story of the asteroid that crashed into Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The impact that a meteorite has is a part of the story."
"I just thought that was such a great bit of theater."
Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons of billions-of-years-old meteor material rain down on the planet daily, much of which vaporizes in Earth's atmosphere or falls into the ocean, which covers over 70 percent of the planet.
Over 60,000 meteorites have been discovered on Earth. The vast majority come from asteroids, but a small sliver, about 0.2 percent, come from Mars or the moon, according to NASA. At least 126 have been identified as originating from the Red Planet.
In order for meteorites to get formally documented, the owner must give a large piece of it to an internationally authorized institution, such as a natural history museum. The institution will cut off a piece to preserve for enduring scientific research.
"The impact that a meteorite has is a part of the story."
Christie's auctioned a piece of Roky's rock that weighed half as much as the weight recorded in the Meteoritical Bulletin. The meteorite is mostly covered in a fusion crust, caused by its fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere. Its front face features a reddish-brown streak from when it crashed through the oxidized tin roof. The meteorite, composed of carbon compounds, sold for US$21,420.
When Hyslop saw the unique remnants of the Costa Rican crash in the gallery, he thought it looked like an art installation.
"For me, it fits very comfortably alongside some very cool contemporary artworks of the moment," he said.
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