Only last week, a rather large space rock entered the Earth's atmosphere and ended up crashing in Russia's Chelyabinsk region.
As reported, this led to several meteorite collectors' packing their bags and heading towards this part of the world. Needless to say, Russian scientists were quick in going public with the news that they would also be searching for bits and pieces of this space rock.
Information recently made available to the general public by police officials in Russia says that one man living in the area of the meteor crash saw fit to make some money by trying to sell so-called meteor fragments online.
Unfortunately for both this entrepreneur and his potential customers, the country's authorities were quick in learning all about his plan.
Thus, after tracking this man down, they paid him a home visit and seized the 60 grams (approximately 0.13 pounds) of supposed out-of-space material that he was trying to sell.
As was to be expected, researchers have also got involved in the attempt to sort out this issue, their goal being that of figuring out whether or not the rock fragments this man made available for purchase online did in fact come from the meteor.
Slash Gear reports that, according to scientists working with NASA, the space rock that shook up Russian Chelyabinsk region was big enough for some bits and pieces of it to have successfully survived the crash.
By the looks of it, some of the alleged meteor fragments that could hit the online market within the following days might be big enough to sell for a whopping $16,600 (roughly €12,435).
On the other hand, rumor has it that slightly smaller fragments would have a starting price of just $330 (about €245).
For the time being, Russian police officers and Russian scientists are asking that people refrain from purchasing such meteor fragments, seeing how they cannot be truly sure that they are in fact getting their money's worth.
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