Large Martian rock to be auctioned
On Wednesday, July 16, a truly extraordinary object will go under the hammer: the largest Martian rock ever to crash to Earth. The auction house expects the Mars meteorite to fetch millions.
The NWA-16788 meteorite weighs approximately 25 kilograms. The stone was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter in Agadez, a remote region of Niger in the Sahara Desert. It likely crashed to Earth not long ago; researchers from the Shanghai Astronomy Museum indicate that the rock shows very few signs of weathering from Earth's environment.
Researchers believe the meteorite arrived on Earth following an asteroid impact on the surface of Mars. This piece of Mars then traveled 225 million kilometers through space before flying through our atmosphere and crashing into the Sahara.
Have you always wanted to own a piece of Mars? Bidding starts at $1.6 million, but auction house Sotheby’s expects the meteorite to sell for between $2 and $4 million. The meteorite is exceptionally rare: while nearly 80,000 meteorites have been identified on Earth, only 400 of them are from Mars. That alone is incredibly special and this particular specimen is the largest of those 400.
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