by New York (AP) -zum Sales: a 25-kilogram rock. An estimated auction price: $ 2 million to $ 4 million. Why so expensive? It is the largest piece of Mars that has ever been found on Earth.
Sotheby’s in New York will be auctioned on Wednesday as part of a sale of natural history, which is also a youthful Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton, which is more than 6 feet and almost 11 meters long, which is known as NWA 16788.
According to the auction house, it is assumed that the meteorite was blown from the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before it traveled to Earth 140 million miles (225 million kilometers), where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, says Sotheby’s.
The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70% larger than the next largest Mars piece on Earth and corresponds to almost 7% of all currently on this planet, says Sotheby’s. It measures almost 15 inches 11 inches 6 inches (375 millimeters of 279 millimeters 152 millimeters).
“This Mars meteorite is the biggest piece of Mars that we have ever found through a long shot,” said Cassandra Hatton, deputy chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby’s, in an interview. “So it is more than twice the size of what we previously considered the largest piece of Mars.”
It is also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites from more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites on Earth, says Sotheby’s.
Hatton said that a small piece of the red planetary was removed and sent to a specialized laboratory, which confirmed that it comes from Mars. It was compared with the different chemical composition by Martian meteorites that were discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, she said.
The examination showed that it is an “olivin microgabroic Shergotit”, a kind of Mars rock that consists of the slow cooling of Marsmagma. It has a course -kotic texture and contains the minerals pyroxen and olivine, says Sotheby’s.
It also has a glassy surface, probably due to the high heat it burned when it fell through the earth’s atmosphere, said Hatton. “So that was her first indication that this was not just a big stone on the floor,” she said.
The meteorite was previously exhibited at the Italian space agency in Rome. Sotheby’s did not disclose the owner.
It is not clear when the meteorite hit the earth, but tests show that this has probably happened in recent years, said Sotheby’s.
The Juvenile Ceratosaurus Nasicornis skeleton was found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists gathered almost 140 fossil bones with some shaped materials to reproduce the skeleton and assembled it so that it is ready to exhibit, says Sotheby’s.
It is believed that the skeleton comes from the late Jura time about 150 million years ago, says Sotheby’s. The auction estimate is $ 4 million to USD 6 million.
Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were used with short poor branches of two, which 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 long.
The skeleton was taken over last year by Fossilogic, a fossil and assembly company based in Utah.
The auction on Wednesday is part of Sotheby’s Geek week 2025 and offers 122 articles, including other meteorites, fossils and minerals in gem quality.
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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
