The largest Mars meteor is ever found can bring $ 4 million at auction

One of the lucky bidders will soon encourage more than millions of dollars to take NWA 16788, a 54 -pound meteorite (24 kg). This space rock, which was discovered in the desert desert in 2023, is the largest part of the Red Planet on Earth.

Sotheby’s, auctioned auction house, New York, Estimates Nazurit can bring up to 4 million dollars during the sale of natural history on Wednesday, July 16. The offer begins with $ 1.9 million. Sotheby’s NWA 16788 describes as “an incredibly rare discovery” that traveled 140 million miles (225 million km) through space before collapse in the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption in the desert. Based on its composition, scientists believe that the influence of the strong asteroid has led to the fading of this meteorite from the surface of Mars.

Cassandra Hatton, Vice Chairman of the Board of Science and Natural History in Sotheby, said in A. statement. “This wonderful meteoring provides a concrete connection to the Red Planet – our heavenly neighbor who has long captured human imagination.”

Bunning rocks are approximately 70 % larger than the largest piece of Mars on the ground, making it a unique discovery between an incredibly rare class of geological samples. According to Soutps, 400 of more than 77,000 officially Recognized Meps comes from Mars. The auction house estimates that this individual rock represents about 6.5 % of the total mass of all known Mars materials on the ground.

The NWA 16788 fisherman NWA discovered exactly two years ago from the date of his auction while searching for space rocks in the Kevakaf Niger area, according to Meteorological Association. The organization has documented its physical properties as “an outer surface of gray to brown, partially covered with gray fusion dandruff to the structure.”

Football shell is a major feature He distinguishes Meteork is from the rocks of the earth. This shiny dark outer is formed when a meteor decreases through our planet’s atmosphere at an incredibly high speed. The strength of its descent presses and heats the air on its way, causing it to melt the external. When the meteoric slows down enough to stop melting, the last melting cools to create a glass layer. According to Soutps, the NWA 16788 surface also carries decrease in depression – probably creature With small swirls of hot gas, drops of molten meteorites that erode parts of the surface where the space rock falls on the ground.

Regardless of these signs, NWA 16788 explains the minimum signs of Earth’s atmosphere, indicating that it may have reached our relatively recently, Sotheby explains. After discovering, the Shanghai Flashi Museum received a small piece of meteorite to determine the identity, and classify it as a shyguitte, which is the most abundant Mars meteorite on the ground. These volcanic rocks are made up of volcanic activity on Mars, and it hardens from molten magma.

It may seem unusual to put this great sample for sale instead of displaying it in the museum. Before arriving at Sotheby’s, the Italian Space Agency in Rome and a special exhibition at Arrenzo publicly NWA 16788, Tuscany, was shown, according to Sotheby. Some experts are not happy to see him hidden in a person’s group.

“It will be a shame if he disappears in the basement of the few. It belongs to a museum, where it can be studied, and where children, families and the public can enjoy it in general,” He said CNN. Julia Cartrait, planetary scientist and independent research colleague at Leicester University, England, sees things differently. “Ultimately, if there is no market for search, collecting and selling meteorites, we will not have anywhere near many of our groups – this drives the flag!” CNN told.

Regardless of where it ends, NWA 16788 will always act as a reminder of the strange and unusual methods that the Earth interacts with other planets in the solar system. Human exploration of Mars may still be far -reaching, but once while, the universe brings a piece of the red planet to us, which helps scientists reveal the secrets of our heavenly neighbor.