Meteorites from Mars, space go under the hammer

STORY: This meteorite from Mars is up for auction at Christie’s

along with other meteorites that are striking gold among collectors

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DARRYL PITT, CURATOR, MACOVICH COLLECTION OF METEORITES, SAYING:

"The largest piece of Libyan desert glass known to exist. The third largest piece of Mars known to exist. Really a stunning sculptural meteorites and of course, a dog house that was hit by a meteorite in Costa Rica, which is just so, so unusual."

The dog house that survived a hit from outer space

is expected to fetch up to $300,000

A chunk of Mars is going for as much as $800,000

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST, TV HOST, SAYING: "You might go your whole life without ever touching a meteorite, but there are people who have devoted their entire careers to finding them in the wild, and they often go up for sale either to merchants or at an auction. So, meteorite auctions are not uncommon. In fact, there's entire merchants where all they do is sell meteorites from a storefront. So, if you want a piece of the universe other than Earth, because of course Earth is in the universe, they're available to you."