Sothebyʼs will auction meteorite NWA 16788, the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, on July 16. It is estimated to fetch between $2 million and $4 million.
The Associated Press writes about this.
According to Sothebyʼs, the meteorite was blasted from the surface of Mars by a powerful asteroid impact, then traveled 225 million kilometers to Earth and fell in the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023.
This meteorite is about 70% larger than the next largest Martian fragment found on Earth, and makes up almost 7% of all Martian rock currently on our planet. It measures nearly 38 × 28 × 15 cm.
The find is truly rare: out of over 77 000 officially recognized meteorites, only 400 are of Martian origin.
A small piece of the fragment was sent to a specialized laboratory, which confirmed its Martian origin. The chemical composition was compared with analyses of Martian meteorites discovered during the 1976 Viking mission.
The study showed that it is olivine-microgabbro shergottite, a type of Martian rock formed by the slow cooling of magma. It has a coarse-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine.
The surface of the fragment is covered with a glassy crust — presumably due to the high temperatures during entry into the Earthʼs atmosphere.
The meteorite was previously on display at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. The exact date of the meteoriteʼs fall has not been determined, but tests indicate that it likely occurred within the past few years.
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