He larger piece of Marte found on Earth will be auctioned in New York: with a weight of 24.67 kilograms, will go on sale next July 16 at the initial price of 1.6 million dollars. The piece was discovered on November 16, 2023 by a meteorite search engine that found it in the Agadez region, in Niger.
The Sotheby’s auction house estimates that the piece, Abbreviated as NWA 16788, it could reach a value of US $ 4 million due to its imposing size and its rarity. Of the 77,000 meteorites registered on Earth, only 400 come from Mars and total about 374 kilograms.
“With a weight of 24.67 kilograms, NWA 16788 represents approximately 6.5% of all the Martian material currently known,” said the company in a communication Posted on Tuesday.
The piece It exceeds 70% to the second largest piece of Mars found on Earth. “It is covered with a reddish brown fusion cortex that gives it a application of marciano unmistakable, ”said the auction house.
They are also observed regmagliptos. That is, small depressions caused by the intense heat during its entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. According to experts, the meteorite Show one Scarce land weathering, suggesting that it retains its physical and chemical properties almost intact From his recent arrival to the Sahara desert.
About 21.2% of the volume of NWA 16788 is composed of Maselynitaand type of glass that is formed when an asteroid impacts with such force the surface of Mars which transforms the original mineral of the rock due to intense heat and pressure. That same impact would have launched the fragment outside the planet. Scientists estimate that, of all craters on that planet, just Some 19 have the size and energy necessary to have produced this type of expulsion.
NWA 16788 is classified as a Shergottita Olivina-Microgabroica, a Martian meteorite variety formed by the slow cooling of magma. Scientists consider that the analysis of this piece could promote an update of the classification system of these bodies.
Cassandra HattonVice President of Science and Natural History of Sotheby’s, said: “NWA 16788 is a discovery of extraordinary importance: the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, and the most valuable of its kind ever offered at an auction. ”
“With his trip through space and time, Its immense size and its unmistakable red color It distinguishes it as a unique finding in a generation. This remarkable meteorite It provides a tangible connection with the red planet, our celestial neighbor that he captured for a long time the human imagination, ”he added.
The piece was classified and presented in the 113 edition of the Meteorical Bulletin (2025), the official publication dedicated to the scientific registry of meteorites. Before getting to the auction house, the Fragment Marciano was publicly exhibited at the Italian Space Agency in Rome, during the European night of 2024 researchersand was also part of a sample in a private gallery in Arezzo, Toscana.
