The prestigious auction house Sotheby's in New York (USA) will hold a special auction on July 16, with the highlight being the Martian meteorite named NWA 16788 - an artifact confirmed to be the largest piece of material from the "Red Planet" ever to fall to Earth, weighing up to 25kg.
It is expected that this rare gemstone will be offered for sale at a price of 2-4 million USD.
According to Sotheby's, the NWA 16788 meteorite originated from a giant collision between Mars and an asteroid. The collision sent this mass of material flying into space, before it fell into the Sahara desert - more than 225 million kilometers away from its mother planet. It was not until November 2023 that a meteorite hunter accidentally discovered NWA 16788 in Niger.
The impressive 38 x 28 x 15 cm rock, with its distinctive red, brown and grey hues, accounts for nearly 7% of all Martian meteorites currently known on Earth.
Ms. Cassandra Hatton - Vice President in charge of Science and Natural History at Sotheby's, affirmed that this is the largest piece of Mars ever recorded, about 70% larger than the second largest specimen.
To date, of the more than 77,000 meteorites recorded on Earth, only about 400 samples have originated from Mars. That shows the rarity of this artifact.
A small portion of NWA 16788 was separated and sent to a specialized laboratory, where scientists were able to determine the Martian origin of the sample by comparing its chemical composition with samples collected by the Viking probes on Mars in 1976.
The analysis revealed that the meteorite was olivine-micro gabbroic shergottite, a volcanic rock formed from slowly cooling lava containing the minerals olivine and pyroxene. The meteorite’s surface was covered with scorched glass, a remnant of the intense friction as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere, which was the first clue that it was no ordinary rock.
Before Sotheby's, the meteorite was on display at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. However, the identity of its current owner remains a mystery. The exact time of its fall to Earth is unknown, but experts believe it may have occurred within the last few years.
The July 16 auction is the highlight of Sotheby's Geek Week 2025, which will feature 122 unique objects, including meteorites, fossils and rare minerals - taking science lovers on an exciting journey through space and time.
In addition to the meteorite, another highlight of the auction is the juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton, measuring more than 2 meters tall and nearly 3 meters long. The specimen was discovered in 1996 at the Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming - an area famous for its rich fossil deposits.
Experts have reconstructed the skeleton from about 140 real fossil fragments, combined with some simulated parts to create a complete artifact, ready for display.
Ceratosaurus was a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago, with a shape reminiscent of Tyrannosaurus rex but smaller in size - reaching a maximum length of about 7.6 meters compared to 12 meters of T. rex.
This specimen was purchased by Fossilogic, a company specializing in fossil restoration and preservation in Utah (USA), last year./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/dau-gia-khoi-da-sao-hoa-lon-nhat-tung-duoc-tim-thay-tren-trai-dat-post1049545.vnp
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