{"id":38541,"date":"2025-07-04T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38541\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T16:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:54:14","slug":"largest-mars-rock-on-earth-could-sell-for-us4-million-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38541\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest Mars Rock on Earth Could Sell For US$4 Million : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most massive chunk of Mars<\/a> ever found on Earth could sell for up to US$4 million in a Sotheby’s auction later this month.<\/p>\n

Believed to be the largest individual Martian rock<\/a> recovered so far, the meteorite (officially named NWA-16788<\/a>) weighs in at 24.67 kilograms (54.39 pounds). That’s about 70 percent larger than the previous record-holder, Taoudenni 002<\/a>, a meteorite found in Mali back in 2021 that weighed 14.51 kg.<\/p>\n

A meteorite hunter came across NWA-16788 in November 2023, in the sparsely populated Agadez region<\/a> of Niger, which is far better known for its dinosaur<\/a> fossils than its meteorites. The Shanghai Astronomy Museum confirmed the rock’s Martian identity based on a small sample sent there, and now this interplanetary treasure has a price tag, too.<\/p>\n

Related: Man Keeps a Rock For Years Hoping It’s Gold. It Turns Out to Be Far More Valuable.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The meteorite “shows minimal terrestrial weathering, indicating that its physical and chemical makeup have not been significantly altered since its arrival in the Sahara Desert,” the Sotheby’s listing explains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“In other words, NWA-16788 is likely a relative newcomer here on Earth, having fallen from outer space rather recently.”<\/p>\n

\"aDoes your rock collection need an upgrade? (Sotheby’s<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Based on the high percentage of a glass called maskelynite, and a few shock-melted<\/a> areas, we know that this rock was probably sent flying when a severe asteroid crashed<\/a> into its home planet.<\/p>\n

The Sotheby’s listing states<\/a> the meteorite was “formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma and [is] characterized by a coarse-grained texture composed primarily of pyroxene<\/a>, maskelynite<\/a>, and olivine<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Some scientists question whether such a rare specimen should be up for sale.<\/p>\n

“It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch,” paleontologist Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh told Jack Guy at CNN<\/a>. “It belongs in a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large.”<\/p>\n

But planetary scientist Julia Cartwright from the University of Leicester gave CNN a different opinion: “The scientific interest will remain, and the new owner may be very interested in learning from it, so we may still gather lots of science from this.”<\/p>\n

The Sotheby’s auction<\/a> will begin on July 16 at 14:00 UTC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most massive chunk of Mars ever found on Earth could sell for up to US$4 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[352,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-38541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-msft-content","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114796014053936757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}