A PAIR of Michael Jackson’s sparkly socks are going under the hammer at auction, with experts anticipating that the lot will fetch up to US$1 million.

The crystal-encrusted sparkly socks are being auctioned together with a signed letter from the late singer.

The socks were worn by the star the first time he performed his famous moonwalk dance during a performance of “Billie Jean” in 1983. Jackson performed March 25, 1983 while recording the television special “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.”

As reported on GottaHaveRockandRoll.com, which is organizing the sale, the socks are expected to fetch between US$1-2 million when the auction begins tomorrow.

They are described as being “in very good, stage-worn condition” and come with a full “certificate of authenticity.”

The listing for the item reads: “Michael Jackson wore these Bill Whitten custom crystal socks when he performed his ‘Moonwalk’ on stage for the first time ever for his iconic song ‘Billie Jean’ at the historic Motown Special concert, ‘Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever’ which was taped before a live studio audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983 and broadcast on NBC TV on May 16, 1983.”

“Michael gifted the socks to his manager Frank DiLeo during the 1984 Victory Tour and wrote and signed a letter to Frank to accompany them…Comes with a letter from Frank DiLeo’s wife Linda DiLeo attesting that Michael wore the socks when he did his moonwalk at the Motown Special and then subsequently gave them to her husband during the Victory Tour, as well as an email from Jimmy Darren confirming their authenticity.”

On Nov. 1, it was confirmed that Jackson has been named the highest-earning dead celebrity in 2019 for the seventh year in a row.

The late pop star — who died in 2009 aged 50 — topped Forbes’ 2019 list after his estate made over £46 million (US$58.8 million) in the last 12 months.

The news comes despite the controversy that followed the release of “Leaving Neverland” earlier this year.

The Dan Reed-directed documentary, which divided viewers upon its U.K. airing, focuses on testimony by Wade Robson, 36, and James Safechuck, 41, who both claim that Jackson sexually abused them when they were children.

According to Forbes, Jackson’s streaming numbers “surged” despite the scandal, to “2.1 billion U.S. spins, up from 1.8 billion a year ago.”

(SD-Agencies)

Dr Andrew Siemion, leader of the Breakthrough Listen science team at the University of California, said: “The discovery by the Kepler spacecraft of Boyajian’s Star, an object with wild, and apparently random, variations in its lightcurve, sparked great excitement and a range of possible explanations, of which megastructures were just one.

“Follow-up observations have suggested that dust particles in orbit around the star are responsible for the dimming, but studies of anomalies like this are expanding our knowledge of astrophysics, as well as casting a wider net in the search for technosignatures.”

NASA’s TESS Satellite Takes Off to Search for Alien Life

The US$337 million space telescope is no larger than a refrigerator but it has a big mission ahead, as it will search for alien worlds around stars and planets.

NASA’s newest planet-hunting spacecraft is equipped with four sensitive cameras, and it is set to reach the Moon in mid-June.

It has been designed as a successor to the Kepler space observatory.

Like Kepler, TESS will search for alien planets using the “transit method,” recording the tiny brightness dips these worlds cause as they cross their host stars’ faces.

But TESS differs from Kepler in its orbit. Whereas Kepler circles around the sun in a heliocentric orbit, TESS will fly around in an extreme elliptical, 13.7-day orbit that will be a first of its kind, as no manmade object has ever done so before.

TESS will carry out a broad sky survey during its two-year prime mission, covering about 85 percent of the sky. The satellite will focus on the nearest and brightest stars.

“TESS is the first step toward finding habitable planets,” mission project scientist Stephen Rinehart said during a briefing.