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54-Pound Martian Meteorite Sells for Record $5.3 Million at Sotheby’s Auction

The sale underscores rising demand for rare extraterrestrial specimens.

Overview

  • Meteorite NWA 16788 fetched a $4.3 million hammer price, equating to about $5.3 million after fees, setting a new record for meteorite auctions.
  • The buyer has not been revealed following a 15-minute bidding contest held by Sotheby’s in New York on July 16, 2025.
  • Specialized lab tests matched its chemistry to samples from NASA’s Viking missions, confirming its origin as an olivine-microgabbroic shergottite from Mars.
  • At 54 pounds, it is 70% larger than the previous largest Martian fragment and accounts for roughly 6.5–7% of all Martian material on Earth.
  • Believed to have been ejected from Mars by an ancient asteroid impact, the fragment traveled over 140 million miles before its November 2023 discovery in Niger’s Sahara Desert.