Remember that meteor that lit up Michigan skies last month? It may fetch over 12 grand at auction. Who knew a chunk of rock could be so valuable?

Ashley Moritz was the lucky one who found the meteorite on the ice of frozen Zukey Lake in Livingston County near Hamburg. Ashley and her business partner Christopher Rodgers used a metal detector to find the space rock shortly after it fell on January 16.

The rock is currently on display at the Christie Auction House in their 'Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other rare Meteorites' display. It will be auctioned off in April.  Christie's has informed Moritz that the starting bid will be $12,000.

"We saw on the news a couple days after that people were finding meteorites, so we thought, why not us," Moritz, of Royal Oak, told the Livingston Daily.

They took their metal detectors out to the lake, where several people had reported finding chunks of the meteor.

"The first day we didn't have any luck with our metal detectors, but then, the second day, I decided to just look with my eyes, and then I saw it in the snow. I was very excited and knew surely it was one," Moritz told Livingston Daily. "It had the outside crust that is black, called a fusion crust, that is the part that is burnt when it comes into the atmosphere, and that had chips in it and there were beautiful colors inside."

Darryl Pitt, Christie's meteor consultant recently told MLive that meteor chunks can fetch a very high price.

"While the world's fascination with meteorites is flourishing, the market for sculptural iron meteorites has exploded. Less than 2 percent of all meteorites are of the iron variety -- and less than 5 percent of those are aesthetic and rightfully considered natural sculpture from outer space."

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