Unusual heart-shaped meteorite up for auction

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A British auction house is offering an unusual item just in time for Valentine's Day: a 22-pound meteorite shaped like a heart.

The auction house, Christie's, said "The Heart of Space" meteortize was part of an iron mass that split from the asteroid belt 320 million years ago and fell to earth Feb. 12, 1947.

The 9-inch-long heart piece was one of several meteorites that split from a larger meteorite that landed in Siberia's Sikhote-Alin Mountains and caused sonic booms that reverberated up to 200 miles away.

"The shockwaves from the low altitude explosion of the main mass collapsed chimneys, shattered windows and uprooted trees," Christie's said.

The auctioneer said the piece is "one of the finest meteorites in private hands."

Sarah Crowther, from the University of Manchester's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, told CNN the meteorite is a "fairy rare" type known as IIAB.

Christie's said the meteorite is expected to fetch a high bid of $300,000-$500,000.