How I See It: The doghouse that sold for $44,000!3 min read
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How I See It is a weekly column by our youngest member, Arav B.
While he writes about all things under the sun, his special interests are technology, science and sports.
To figure out why this doghouse sold for so much, we first have to understand what a meteorite is…
Owliver’s Obscure Observations
A meteorite is a space rock that hits the surface of the Earth. Since our atmosphere has so many layers, most of these space rocks burn up in the atmosphere. Therefore, they don’t threaten our everyday lives. Even the ones that do hit the surface, barely do any damage. The most famous meteorite in the history of our planet is the one that killed the dinosaurs. We learnt about this in our story about extinctions.
Now that we know what a meteorite is, let’s figure out how a dog and his home fits into it all!
In 2019, a German Shepherd named Roky was sitting in his doghouse, when a meteorite struck it. Fortunately, it missed Roky and the dog escaped unscathed. His humans were, of course, delighted that Roky was safe and well. But when they saw the projected price for the doghouse, they could not believe it! Popular auction house Christie’s projected it to go for nearly 300,000 USD (2 crore INR) in their annual sale that’s all about space rocks.
What makes this doghouse so valuable?
Interestingly, the doghouse went for more than the meteorite. When a meteorite hits a human-owned object, it is seen as an extremely rare occurrence. Very few people are lucky enough to have one of these. We already know that barely any space rocks hit the Earth’s surface. Out of those, only about 2% are recovered (about 10 each year). So, you can only imagine how rare it is for one to hit such a small object like a doghouse.
To give you a sense of how much meteorite-struck objects go for, let’s look at another example. When a meteorite hit a pickup truck in 2007, the truck went for nearly 1.5 crore INR, or $200,000!
Sadly, the projection for the doghouse did not live up to expectations. As you saw in the quiz, the doghouse only went for about $44,000 (33 lakh INR). But, Roky will get a new doghouse and hopefully, a better one. The one that was hit by the meteorite had a rusted tin roof and old pressed metal that probably wouldn’t have been safe to live in for too long anyway.
Here’s hoping Roky’s new home is a little more snazzy!
