The largest fragment of Mars found on Earth is not exposed in the room of a Natural History Museum, but in an auction house waiting to sell to the highest bidder.
NWA 16788. The Marcian meteor of 24.67 kilograms, the largest and most recent of those found on Earth, will go to auction in New York on July 16, with an exit Price of 1.6 million dollars.
The Sotheby’s auction house expects a value of 4 million dollars. Not only for its extraordinary size, but also because of its rarity. Of the more than 77,000 officially documented meteorites, only about 400 comes from Mars.
The largest piece on Mars. NWA 16788 was discovered on November 16, 2023, when a meteor hunter found the rock in the desert region of Agadez, in Niger. It was an unusual finding. 70% larger than the previous holder of the largest Martian meteorite record, represents 6.5% of the entire Mars of Mars known on our planet.
In addition to confirming its origin, the scientists who analyzed him concluded that he was expelled from the surface of Mars for the impact of a large asteroid. The test is in its composition: 21.2% is Maskelynita, a type of glass that is formed when the Martian rock feldspar is transformed by the intense heat and the pressure of a great impact.
Little used, just 225 million kilometers. After being thrown into space, this piece of Mars traveled about 225 million kilometers before being caught by the severity of the earth and precipitating through the atmosphere. He barely eroded during his stay on our planet, indicating that he is a newcomer to the Sahara desert.
Of reddish colors, the Shanghai Astronomy Museum classified it as a “Shergottita de Olivino-Microgabro”, a rock formed by the slow cooling of Martian magma and composed mainly of Piroxen, Maskelynite and Olivino. It is such an unique copy that its study has questioned the classification system of Martian meteorites.
The usual debate. The sale of this unique specimen has unleashed the controversy. Scientists regret that a piece of so much value for science and dissemination can end in a private collection. “It would be a pity to disappear in the vault of an oligarch,” summarizes the paleontologist Steve Brusatte, from the University of Edinburgh. “It belongs to a museum, where it can be studied and enjoyed by children, families and the general public.”
Although it ends in private hands, a fragment of the meteorite is preserved in China. This sample probably contains all the information that contains the whole rock, so if the scientific interest prevails, science can still be done with part of it.
Imagen | Sotheby’s
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