A woman tried to sell a Moon rock for $1,7 million in the United States. Her client, however, was an undercover NASA agent. Selling and buying Moon samples is illegal.

A woman trying to sell a purported Moon rock was exposed in the United States by an undercover agent working for NASA. Moon rocks are considered a national treasure and therefore it is illegal to sell or buy them. On the black market though, their price reaches millions of dollars. The woman hoped to get $1,7 million for the Moon rock, but on the secret meeting in a restaurant in California her client revealed he was a NASA agent. The woman was detained, and then released – according to CBS. First, it has to be verified that the Moon rock is actually of lunar origin.

This is not the first time NASA agents have stepped in to recover moon rocks. Astronauts returned about 400 kilograms of Moon rock to Earth, but even they were not allowed to keep samples. Outside of lunar meteorites and a few ounces of the moon returned by Soviet robotic probes, all other moon rocks are considered to be the property of the United States.