by An “incredibly rare” Mars piece sold itself at a New York auction for £ 3.2 million after he was found in the Sahara desert.
The 24.5 kg (54 lb) meteorite is the largest piece of Mars on earth. It was emitted by a massive asteroid strike from the surface of the Mars and then traveled 140 million miles through the room before racing through the earth’s atmosphere and collapsing in Niger.
A meteorite hunter found the 15 -inch rock, which is called NWA 16788, in November 2023.
Cassandra Hatton, deputy chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, who sold the meteorite, said: “This is the largest piece of Mars on planet Earth.
“The chances that this is astronomically small from there,” she said in an online video published.
“Remember that about 70 percent of the surface of the earth are covered with water.
“We are incredibly happy that this ended up in dry land instead of the middle of the ocean where we could actually find it.”
Only about 400 Martian meteorites were found on Earth, and the NWA 16788 accounts for about seven percent of all known Mars materials here.
Sotherbys described the find as a “incredibly rare discovery”.
NWA 16788 is “covered with a red -brown fusion crust that gives it an unmistakable Mars color,” said the auction catalog.
About a fifth of the meteorite consists of a glassy material called Masklynit, which was generated by the intensive warmth and pressure that was generated in an asteroid when the Mars was hit.
“In view of the severity of the impact that is necessary to throw out a material from the surface of the Mars and in space, the researchers believe that there are only about 19 craters who are big enough to be the potential original points for Martian meteorites,” said Sotheby’s.
An examination of the surface has found a small “terrestrial weathering”, which indicates that the meteorite may not have been on earth for long.
“In other words, NWA 16788 is probably a relative newcomer here on earth after he recently fallen out of space,” said Sotheby’s.
Details of the buyer have not been published and it is not clear where the meteorite will now live.
The rock was sold as part of the Sotheby’s “Geek Week” auction, in which fossils, mineral deposits, meteorites and other natural history exhibits have come under the hammer.
A Ceratosaurus skeleton from the late Jura period for 19 pounds ($ 26 million) and the skull of a Pachycephalosaurus for 1 million GBP (USD 1.4 million).
