On Dec. 25, a rare meteorite the size of a fist sells for 80 million RMB in a meteorite store in Urumchi, Xin Jiang China.
The meteorite is about 15 cm long and 8 cm wide. It weights about 434 grams.
The reason the meteorite is selling for such a high price is because this is a "witnessed" meteorite, according to a source. On April 12, 2009, some local villagers saw the meteorite come down from the sky and fall on the ground. The villagers then came to the site and dug the meteorite out of the ground.
"This meteorite is kept intact that is very rare seen in China or even internationally. Its age should be more than 46 billion years, and it is the same age of the Earth. It has immeasurablly high scientific value, economic value, cultural value", said Beijing Planetarium engineer and meteorite expert Zhang Baolin.
On Oct. 18, 1979, a main-belt asteroid was discovered at the Purple Mountain Observatory at Nanking. It was named 2729 Urumqi, an alternate spelling of Urumchi. Its orbital period was 1792.9893221. An alternate name of the asteroid was 1979 UA2.