Largest piece of Mars on Earth goes up for auction

A collection of objects related to natural history will be auctioned by Sotheby's on July 16th, and the highlight is a piece of Mars, the largest ever found on our planet.

Named NWA 16788, the object weighs 25 kilograms and was found by a meteorite hunter in the Sahara Desert of Niger in November 2023, according to the Associated Press . It is estimated that it traveled 225 million kilometers to Earth as a result of a massive asteroid collision with Mars, but the date on which it arrived on our planet has not been determined.

According to Sotheby's, this piece — which measures 38 cm by 28 cm by 15 cm — is about 70% larger than the second-largest object of Martian origin found on Earth and represents almost 6.5% of all Martian material currently on this planet.

Only 400 of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth come from Mars. Given this object's exceptional characteristics, its value is estimated at between two and four million dollars, with bidding starting at $1.6 million (€1.3 million).

"This Martian meteorite is by far the largest piece of Mars we've ever found," said Cassandra Hatton, vice president for science and natural history at Sotheby's, in an interview. According to her, the piece was sent to a specialized laboratory, which confirmed it was from Mars, and its chemical composition was compared to that of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe's 1976 landing.

The examination revealed that it is an "olivine-microgabbroic shergottite," a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. It has a light-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine, Sotheby's says.