The first sample of moon dust ever collected is up for sale for almost £1million, more than 1,400 times what was initially paid for it.
Scooped up by Neil Armstrong during the historic 1969 moon landing, he placed it in a decontamination bag and it was carried back to Earth and handed over to NASA.
The bag – which had been thought to have been empty – was subsequently lost and turned up at a space museum in Kansas.
It was on display until it was stolen by curator Max Ary.
It was discovered in his garage in 2003 along with other space artefacts and he was jailed for fraud, theft and money laundering.
US Marshals officials unwittingly auctioned the bag in 2015 to raise funds, not realising that the inside contained traces of precious moon dust.
Bought by lawyer Nancy Carlson for around £700, she sent the bag back to NASA for verification.
But on discovering that it contained lunar dust from the Apollo 11 mission NASA refused to give it back to her.
After a two-year legal battle the space agency was forced to return it along with the moon dust, which they had concentrated on 1cm-wide carbon tape placed in five aluminium sample stubs.
The dust is now set to sell at auctioneers Bonhams in New York for more than 1,400 times what it was bought for seven years ago.
Adam Stackhouse, a specialist at Bonhams, said: “It is the only time in history a verified sample from the Apollo mission has sold at auction.
"This is a rare relic marking the height of human achievement.”
Ms Carlson sold the bag privately for £1.4million in 2017 but this is the first time the dust has come to the public market.
The aluminium stubs, which can be viewed under a microscope, will be sold on April 13 with a pre-sale estimate of between £600,000 and £900,000.
