How much price fixed for Mars rock that fell in Niger ?
A huge and ‘extremely rare’ Martian rock that fell in the Sahara Desert is set to sell for about $2 million at auction. Sotheby’s in New York is selling the 55-pound rock, dubbed NWA 16788, for more than $1.6 million, which it says is the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.
A 11-foot-long dinosaur skeleton is also expected to sell for between $4 million and $6 million, Sotheby’s auction house said. A Martian meteorite weighing 24.67 kilograms, said to be the largest piece of Mars on Earth, is expected to sell for $2 million to $4 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Wednesday. The reddish-brown Martian rock travelled 140 million miles to reach Earth, according to the auction house. A meteorite hunter discovered it in Niger in 2023. Sotheby’s says the rock is about 70 percent larger than the next largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth and makes up about seven percent of the Martian material currently on Earth. “This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars ever found, by a very clear margin,” Cassandra Heaton, vice chairperson of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, told Fortune magazine. Hatton said that the rock was sent to a special laboratory for testing, where it was found to be ‘olivine-microgabbroic shergottite’, a rock that forms when magma cools slowly.
The discovery is also unique. According to Sotheby’s, out of more than 77,000 meteorites officially recognized on Earth so far, only 400 are Martian meteorites. According to Hatton, it also has a glass-like layer on its surface, which was probably formed due to intense heat during its entry into Earth’s atmosphere. They said it was the first sign that it was not just any ordinary rock. Sotheby’s said it was not clear when the meteorite hit Earth, but tests suggest it was likely in recent years. The meteorite had previously been on display at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. Sotheby’s did not disclose the name of its owner. The auction house also sold an 11-foot-long dinosaur this week, estimated at between $4 million and $6 million. The skeleton of a baby Ceratosaurus nasicornis was found in 1996 at the Bone Cabin Quarry near Laramie, Wyoming. Sotheby’s said it likely dates to the end of the dinosaur era, about 65 million years ago.
The skeleton will go up for sale on Wednesday. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs walked on two legs. They had short arms and looked similar to Tyrannosaurus Rex, but were smaller in size.
