Rare Mars Rock, Meteorite Nwa 16788, is at auction at Sotheby’s

The largest bit of Mars Rock On earth is scheduled to go to auction – and it can sell for as much as $ 4 million.

Martian Meteorite Nwa 16788 will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on July 16, Per A drop On the famous auction house’s website.

The meteorite weighs about 54 kg. and is about 15 inches over at its widest sections per release. The house also stated that the “incredibly rare discovery” was thrown out of Mars surface After a “massive asteroid strike” and eventually landed 140 million miles away in the Sahara desert.

The Rock was discovered on November 16, 2023 by a meteorite hunter in a remote part of Niger in West Africa. This is about 70% larger than the second largest part of Mars Rock on Earth, Per Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s also stated that there are only about 400 known Mars stones on earthwhich makes up less than 1% of all known space coats on our planet.

“NWA 16788 shows minimal soil weathering, indicating that its physical and chemical makeup has not changed significantly since its arrival in the Sahara desert,” read the release. “In other words, NWA 16788 is probably a relatively newcomer here on earth, after falling from outer space quite recently.”

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Steve Brusatte, professor of paleontology and evolution at Scotland University of Edinburgh, told CNN That the fact that Mars Rock is sold – as opposed to donated to science – is not necessarily not good.

“It would be a shame if it disappeared in Vault by an oligarch. It belongs to a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large, ”Brusatte told the outlet.

However, other experts said that private collection of such objects can actually benefit scientific research overall.

“In the end, if there was no market to search, collect and sell meteorites, we would not have anywhere near so many in our collections – and this drives science!” Julia Cartwright, a planet scientist and independent researcher at the University of Leicester, told CNN.

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“If samples were not found, we wouldn’t have anywhere close to studying, and so would not know as much as we do,” she added.

A meteorite specifically describes a piece of stone that has survived a “journey” through the earth’s atmosphere and has landed intact on the surface of the earth, Per Nasa.

They differ from meteoroids, which are defined as stones that are still in space, as well as meteors, which describe stones that enter the atmosphere at high speed and incentive on arrival – sometimes creates what is called as known as “Sliding stars.”