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Heart-shaped meteorite up for auction on Valentine's Day
cnn ^ | 31st January 2019

Posted on 01/31/2019 8:14:11 AM PST by BenLurkin

You might want to reconsider your Valentine's Day plans this year: A superior gift is about to go on sale, and it came all the way from space.

British auction house Christie's is soon to open online bidding on a heart-shaped meteorite, one that plummeted to Earth over Siberia in 1947.

Sarah Crowther, from the University of Manchester's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, told CNN that the specimen belongs to an uncommon group of iron meteorites known as IIAB. "There are currently 134 type IIAB iron meteorites, out of a total of over 60,000 known meteorites, so this type is fairly rare," Crowther said.

"The price does seem high for an iron meteorite," she added. Other fragments of the same meteorite retail for far less: "In the range of $1-$4 per gram," she said, "whereas even the lower end of the estimated price range for this is almost $30 per gram." What's responsible for the high value of the meteorite? "The shape, the regmaglypts and the size of the sample," Crowther said.

Bids open on the meteorite, obtained from New York's Macovich Collection of Meteorites, on Feb. 6 and conveniently close on Feb. 14. It's a slightly bigger commitment than a heart-shaped box of chocolates, however: The auction house expects it to sell for somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: heartshaped; meteorite
Color, cut, and clarity.
1 posted on 01/31/2019 8:14:11 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Nothing beats chocolates.


2 posted on 01/31/2019 8:16:32 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.S)
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Hell that’s a real bargain....warmer, softer, and cheaper than my last ‘Valentine’s heart....


3 posted on 01/31/2019 8:19:44 AM PST by TnTnTn
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To: BenLurkin

It doesn’t resemble a human heart at all.

Sucker’s game....


4 posted on 01/31/2019 8:55:50 AM PST by Trump_the_Evil_Left (FReeper formerly known as Enchante (registered Sept. 5, 2001), back from the wild....)
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To: BenLurkin
Color, cut, and clarity.

Why bring race into this? (/liberal)

5 posted on 01/31/2019 9:09:43 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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