Moon dust bag sells for $1.8 million

A bag of moon dust collected by US astronaut Neil Armstrong was sold at auction in New York yesterday.

A bag of moon dust is being auctioned. Photo: Sotherby's.

The white bag containing lunar soil and rock samples collected by Armstrong from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 was bought by an anonymous person for $1.8 million at a Sotheby's auction on July 20 in New York, USA, according toBBC.

The auction was held to mark the 48th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing. The samples collected by the astronauts on this mission were all collected and preserved at the Smithsonian Museum. However, due to NASA’s negligence, the bag was left in a box at the Johnson Space Center and then sold to a female lawyer in Chicago for $995.

NASA tried to get the bag back, but earlier this year a federal judge declared it belonged to the rightful buyer, who asked Sotheby's to sell it.

According to VNE