Largest chunk of Mars discovered on Earth sells at auction for $5.3 million
The Martian meteorite, identified as NWA 16788, was first discovered in Africa's Sahara Desert back in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter, according to the Meteoritical Society.
Space experts believe the giant rock was dislodged from the Red Planet's surface by an asteroid impact, causing the Martian mass to travel 140 million miles before crashing into Earth's surface.
"NWA 16788 is a discovery of extraordinary significance - the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, and the most valuable of its kind ever offered at auction," Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of science & natural history at Sotheby's, said in a statement.
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According to the international auction house, the 54-pound meteorite is some 70% larger than the second largest known piece of Martian.
It is not clear when the reddish, gray meteorite crashed into Earth and experts were only able to confirm its identity when comparing it with data collected during NASA's Viking lander mission in 1976.
"NWA 16788 is an olivine-microgabbroic shergottite, formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma and characterized by a course-grained texture composed primarily of pyroxene, maskelynite and olivine. A significant percentage (21.2% by volume) of NWA 16788 is composed of a glass known as maskelynite, produced when an asteroid struck the Martian surface with such force that it metamorphosed the rock's original feldspar through intense heat and pressure," researchers at Sotheby stated.
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Out of some 77,000 meteorites that have been identified on Earth, only about 400 are thought to have originated from Mars.
Also drawing attention at Wednesday's auction were the remains of a dinosaur that sold for north of $30 million.
The fossilized remains of the Ceratosaurus nasicornis stand over six feet tall and was originally discovered in 1996 during an excavation in Wyoming.
The skelton is said to date back to the Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago.Original article source: Largest chunk of Mars discovered on Earth sells at auction for $5.3 million
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