Most people want to get rid of dirt, but this special sample of lunar dust is out of this world.
collected by in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission are up for auction this month.
Bonhams, the auction company in charge of the sale, estimated the sample to be worth between US$800,000 and $1.2 million.
It's the only known lunar dust sample from Apollo 11 that can legally be sold, making it difficult for the auction house to estimate its value, according to Bonhams specialist Adam Stackhouse.
To determine the price range, Stackhouse looked at the other few lunar dust samples that have been sold as well as the significance of the historic event from which it originated.
"I think this estimate gives it a sense of importance," he said, "but it's really difficult to say where it will sell."
The auction is not until mid-April, but people are already expressing interest, according to Stackhouse.
This particular Apollo 11 relic created some bad blood between its owner and NASA.
Armstrong brought the bag of lunar dust back to Earth, but NASA lost the bag after a loan-out to a museum. It became when a space museum director was convicted of fraud and theft.
It ended up being auctioned off by the US Marshalls Service to Illinois resident Nancy Lee Carlson in 2015 for $995.
She sent the bag to NASA for help identifying where it came from, Stackhouse said. Once NASA realized the significance of the bag, the space agency refused to return it to Carlson, he said.
Carlson sued NASA and won, forcing agency officials to return the bag.
Auctioneer Sotheby's sold the bag separately for $1.8 million in 2017.
Carlson is now looking to sell five metal pieces with lunar dust on top that are still in a container from NASA, Stackhouse said.
The auction company independently tested the material to confirm it indeed came from the moon, Stackhouse said.
Bonhams is selling the piece of space history on Carlson's behalf, but she didn't share with Stackhouse why she was interested in offering it for auction.
Officials at NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If you don't have $1 million lying around, the auction house will be selling other space memorabilia -- albeit still expensive.
One item is a , the first artificial satellite the Soviet Union launched into the Earth's orbit in 1957. It's valued at $80,000 to $120,000.
Bonhams will also be selling a map of the moon signed by 15 Apollo astronauts, including Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It's valued at $20,000 to $30,000.
If you're interested in attending the auction, it will be held April 13 at Bonhams New York gallery.
The batteries of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that blew up this week were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, a Lebanese source familiar with the device's components told Reuters.
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
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Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
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A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
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Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
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A social media post of purple apples “growing†in Saskatchewan has sparked a lot of attention. However, garden experts say there's no such thing.
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Police were focusing their attention on the northeast corner of Richmond and Horton, with members of the emergency response unit taking up positions at the scene.
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Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant in Walkerton.
Standing up, speaking out, and showing solidarity — survivors and supporters gathered in the core to take back the night in Windsor. The city is just one of a growing list of communities that have declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic.
The Windsor Police Service (WPS) has seized over $56,000 in drugs and have arrested one suspect.
SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
In a rare move, the Greater Victoria School District Board of Education has been slapped with a ministerial order from the province requiring it to update a student safety plan – drawing concern around political posturing leading up to an election.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities is asking the provincial government to make transit free for teenagers.
To appreciate why Mimi Vandermolen is so pleased to notice one particular vehicle she’s walking past, you need to know that seeing this many cars in one place would have been unimaginable when she was growing-up in the post-war Netherlands.
A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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