Sotheby’s, a globally renowned auction house, has announced that a meteorite discovered in Africa, believed to be the largest piece of Mars rock found to date, will be up for auction in mid-July, with an estimated price reaching a whopping $4 million.
According to Sotheby’s website, this largest piece of Martian debris on Earth was propelled into space after being hit by a huge asteroid on the surface of Mars, traversing 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) of space before breaking through the Earth’s atmosphere and ultimately landing in the Sahara Desert.
Named NWA 16788, the Mars rock was found by a meteorite hunter in a remote area of Niger on November 16, 2023, weighing 24.67 kilograms, about 70% larger in volume than the second-largest piece of Martian rock ever discovered on Earth.
Martian meteorites on Earth are extremely rare. Out of over 77,000 officially recognized meteorites, only 400 are known to have originated from Mars, with a total weight of approximately 374 kilograms.
NWA 16788 is covered in a reddish-brown fusion crust, displaying unique Martian hues. Its surface also bears the marks of rapid heating from friction as it passed through the Earth’s atmosphere, forming distinct depressions.
The rock shows minimal signs of terrestrial weathering, indicating that its physical and chemical composition has remained largely unchanged since its arrival in the Sahara Desert. In other words, NWA 16788 likely fell to the Earth’s surface from outer space relatively recently.
A significant portion of NWA 16788 (21.2% by volume) is composed of a glassy material formed by the impact of a small asteroid hitting the Martian surface. The intense impact forces led to alterations in the original feldspar due to high temperatures and pressures, also ejecting the Martian fragment from the surface.
Sotheby’s describes this meteorite as “formed during the slow cooling of Martian magma, characterized by a coarse-grained structure, primarily composed of pyroxene, plagioclase, and olivine.”
NWA 16788 has been verified as a Martian meteorite and was published in the 113th issue of the Meteoritical Bulletin (2025), a leading journal in the field of meteorite science.
Before arriving at Sotheby’s, this meteorite was previously displayed at the “2024 European Researchers’ Night” hosted by the Italian Space Agency.
Sotheby’s has scheduled the auction for NWA 16788 on July 16, with an expected bidding price ranging between $2 million and $4 million.
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