Biggest Martian meteorite on Earth is yours ‘for $4m'
This object from another world was the largest rock from Mars found on Earth. At 25kg (55lb) it weighs as much as a labrador retriever and more than the average British Airways checked-in baggage allowance.
Now the space rock is up for sale and is estimated to fetch $2 million to $4 million at auction on Wednesday.
Known as NWA 16788, the rock is believed to have been dislodged from the surface of Mars by a large asteroid strike before travelling 140 million miles and plummeting into the Sahara.
It was found in Niger by an anonymous meteorite hunter, according to Sotheby's in New York, which is overseeing the sale.
'This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,' Cassandra Hatton, vice-chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby's, said.
Measuring 37.5cm by 27.9cm by 15.2cm, the chunk of the red planet is about 70 per cent larger than the next largest piece found on Earth.
The red, brown and grey rock represents nearly 7 per cent of all the Martian material in the world. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognised meteorites found on Earth, according to the auction house.
A small piece of the rock was sent to a specialised lab, which matched it with rocks discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, Hatton said.
Its glassy surface, likely to have been formed by the heat it experienced as it fell through Earth's atmosphere, was the 'first clue that this wasn't just some big rock on the ground,' Hatton said.
• Why is Mars red? We were wrong, say scientists
It is unclear when exactly the meteorite hit Earth, but testing shows it probably happened in recent years, Sotheby's said. The fragment was previously on show at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. The identity of its owner has not been disclosed by the auction house.
Wednesday's auction is part of Sotheby's Geek Week 2025 and features 122 items, including other meteorites, fossils and gem-quality minerals.
As part of the natural history-themed auction, a juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton that is more than 2m tall and almost 3m long is also up for sale. Found in 1996, it is estimated that the dinosaur skeleton will sell for between $4 million and $6 million.
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