Posted on 07/13/2025 10:56:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin
NEW YORK — For sale: A 54-pound (25-kilogram) 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 as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that's more than 6 feet (2 meters) tall and nearly 11 feet (3 meters) long.
According to the auction house, the meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, Sotheby's says.
The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby's says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches (375 millimeters by 279 millimeters by 152 millimeters).
"This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot," Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby's, said in an interview. "So it's more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars."
It is also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, Sotheby's says.
Hatton said a small piece of the red planet remnant was removed and sent to a specialized lab that confirmed it is from Mars. It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, she said.
The examination found that it is an "olivine-microgabbroic shergottite," a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. It has a course-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine, Sotheby's says.
It also has a glassy surface, likely due to the high heat that burned it when it fell through Earth's atmosphere, Hatton said. "So that was their first clue that this wasn't just some big rock on the ground," she said.
The meteorite previously was on exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. Sotheby's did not disclose the owner.
It's not clear exactly when the meteorite hit Earth, but testing shows it probably happened in recent years, Sotheby's said.
The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists assembled nearly 140 fossil bones with some sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it's ready to exhibit, Sotheby's says.
The skeleton is believed to be from the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, Sotheby's says. It's auction estimate is $4 million to $6 million.
Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were bipeds with short arms that appear similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex, but smaller. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, while the Tyrannosaurs rex could be 40 feet (12 meters) long.
The skeleton was acquired last year by Fossilogic, a Utah-based fossil preparation and mounting company.
Wednesday's auction is part of Sotheby's Geek Week 2025 and features 122 items, including other meteorites, fossils and gem-quality minerals.
Shucks I got a couple of those I would sell for 20 bucks.
Since 67%* of New Yorkers are economically illiterate NYC is a good place to auction something with no intrinsic value and dubious provenance.
*67% is the fraction that vote Democrat. You have to be economically illiterate to vote Democrat Thus my estimation of economic illiteracy in NYC.
Sure there is, just compare them to known samples, they can get some of those on eBay cheap.
Pick up or delivery?
How would it be from Mars? Did it just jump off the planet?
Oh I see. A meteor hit Mars! Uh Huh. Sure thing. Can some one point me to the impact location? One other thing. Since we on Earth had a major impact in AZ there must be some Earth rock on Mars! lol
I can see an enterprising person or group paying $20 mil for it.
At 54 pounds, even breaking it up into 10,000 pieces, they’d be small but still “decent sized” pieces.
Sell each one - an actual piece of Mars - for $2,500.
That’s $25 mil.
Thanks BenLurkin.
Dang, a two-fer!
[snip] The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists assembled nearly 140 fossil bones with some sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it's ready to exhibit, Sotheby's says.
The skeleton is believed to be from the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, Sotheby's says. It's auction estimate is $4 million to $6 million.
Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were bipeds with short arms that appear similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex, but smaller. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, while the Tyrannosaurs rex could be 40 feet (12 meters) long.
The skeleton was acquired last year by Fossilogic, a Utah-based fossil preparation and mounting company. [/snip]
There aren’t any “known samples” if you set the criterion as having been collected on Mars and returned to earth.
Do we really always need these anymore? </s>
We have proven that mars consists of rocks and dirt. Other than the answer to the question “Did life evolve on mars?” There really isn’t anything very interesting there. And I have a clue about that I’m sharing right now. Back to. Earths early history the banded iron formations were laid down. The accepted origin of these is oxygen produced by photosynthetic bacteria reacted with the iron dissolved in the primordial oceans to produce red iron oxide. Mars has a great deal of iron oxide - hint red rust. WHERE DID THE OXYGEN COME FROM that generated the red iron oxide on Mars? I guess that there is a reasonable likelihood it was produced the same way on Mars as on earth.
Other than the answer to this question there isn’t anything on Mars that’s worth the cost of going there. Especially not worth sending manned missions. I know this is blasphemy to the FR space kadets, but the South Pole is much more hospitable and one hell of a lot of cheaper to get to and I don’t see anyone lining up to colonize Antarctica (AND Antartica has air you can breathe) unlike Mars’ atmosphere which is 0.6% of Earth’s
So put those resources into rooting out illegal aliens and shipping them back to where they came from
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