Large moon rock up for public auction

You might not be able to travel to the moon, but you can now own a piece of it for the right price.

Heritage Auctions is selling a lunar meteorite that it is calling "the fourth largest portion of the Moon available for private acquisition". It's not clear which three pieces of the moon are larger and have been available for the public to buy.

But a piece of the moon doesn't come cheap - the opening bid is set at $170,000.

The meteorite, which is classified as Dar al Gani 1058, was supposedly discovered in Libya. It is paired with another rock, Dar al Gani 400, because it is assumed they originated from the same event.

According to The Meteorological Society, the rock was found in 1998 but it has a recommended classification history of "unknown". That means that it is "an object that has never been classified; some may not be meteorites."  So proceed with caution.

Gawker helpfully suggests purchasing the rock and using it as a paperweight, a geode ring, a Thanksgiving centerpiece or self-defence tool.

But what is even more remarkable is how small the number of moon rocks on Earth is. An even smaller number are available for public purchase.

As it turns out, all moon rocks are technically the property of the United States except for lunar meteorites and some samples taken by the Soviet Union.

As Space.com describes, small pieces of rock from the Apollo 11 mission were gifted to 135 countries, U.S. states and other U.S. possessions, but otherwise not even astronauts are allowed to keep pieces of the moon.

As for stolen pieces of the moon, NASA is not afraid to set up a sting to get those rocks back.

But the most audacious moon rock thievery on record goes to NASA intern Thad Roberts, who stole a 600-pound safe full of moon rocks from every lunar mission NASA completed since 1969.

Roberts took the rocks to a hotel room and had sex with his girlfriend on top of them. Later, he tried to the sell the rocks online.

This story is recounted in Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich.

"I think he assumed that it was a college prank," the book's author, Ben Mezrich told CBC's The Current. "He never thought he was stealing this national treasure, which is exactly what he did. He just didn't think of it that way."

Despite the rarity of moon rocks, the meteorite for sale at Heritage Auctions is only expected to fetch between $340,000 and $380,000 dollars.

What do you think? Would you buy the rock if you could afford it? Or should the rock go to a museum?