Piece of Mars sells for $5.3 million: largest Martian rock ever found on Earth sets auction record

Punjab First News · 17 July 2025, 1:30 AM

A dark grey slice of a Martian meteorite on display in a museum case — The 'Los Angeles' Martian meteorite on display at UCLA (file photo) (Vahe Martirosyan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

A rock that fell to Earth from Mars sold for $5.3 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York on July 16, the highest price ever paid for a meteorite at auction.

Known as NWA 16788, the rock weighs about 24.5 kg and is the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth. It is about 70% larger than any other Martian meteorite discovered so far.

It is believed to have been blasted off Mars by a huge asteroid strike before travelling some 225 million km to crash into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023.

Another wonder went under the hammer at the same sale: the skeleton of a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur, about 150 million years old, sold for $30.5 million, far above its estimate.

Niger's government later opened an investigation into how the meteorite left the country and was sold. Sotheby's said it had complied with all international regulations.