Largest chunk of Mars on Earth goes up for auction this week

For sale: A 54-pound rock. Estimated auction price: $2 million to $4 million. Why so expensive? It’s the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.

Sotheby’s in New York will be auctioning what’s known as NWA 16788 on Wednesday.

The meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling 140 million miles to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara Desert. A meteorite hunter found it in 2023.

The red, brown and gray hunk measures 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches.

There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, Sotheby’s says.

A small piece was removed and sent to a specialized lab. It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976.

The examination found that it is an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,” a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. 

The natural history-themed auction also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that’s more than 6 feet tall and nearly 11 feet long. It's expected to sell for $4 million to $6 million.



(AP Photo Richard Drew)