Biggest piece of Mars on Earth is going up for sale in New York

For sale: A 54-pound (25-kilogramme) rock. Estimated auction price: $2 million to $4 million. Why so expensive? It's the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.

- Associated Press

Sotheby's in New York will be auctioning what is known as NWA 16788 on Wednesday as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that is more than 6 feet tall and nearly 11 feet long.

According to the auction house, the meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before travelling 140 million miles to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, Sotheby's says.

The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby's says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches.