Sotheby's to auction largest piece of Mars ever found

Sotheby's to auction largest piece of Mars ever found

 Sotheby's auction house in New York is holding an auction next Wednesday to sell the largest piece of Mars ever discovered on Earth. The 25-kilogram object is expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million, according to initial estimates.

Sotheby's is offering the rock, known as NWA 16788, as part of a natural history auction, which also includes a small Ceratosaurus skeleton, measuring over 6 feet (2 meters) tall and about 11 feet (3 meters) long.

The auction house said the meteorite is believed to have been struck by a massive asteroid and traveled 225 million kilometers to reach Earth, where it landed in the Sahara Desert. The auction house added that a meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023.

Sotheby's explained that this red, brown, and gray rock mass is approximately 70% larger than the second-largest piece of Mars discovered on Earth, measuring approximately 375 mm x 279 mm x 152 mm.

"This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars ever discovered by a significant margin," Cassandra Hutton, vice president of science and natural history at Sotheby's, said in an interview. "So it's more than twice the size of what we previously thought was the largest known piece of Mars."

The auction, which will be held next Wednesday as part of Sotheby's Geek Week 2025, will feature 122 items, including other meteorites, fossils, and high-quality gem-like minerals.