A Space Collector's Unicorn Is Up for Grabs

If your wallet is feeling both heavy and interplanetary, Sotheby's is offering a rare chance to snag the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth—a 54-pound hunk known as NWA 16788. The auction house expects bids to soar as high as $4 million when the space rock goes under the hammer in New York City next Wednesday.

CBS News reports Martian meteorites are a sort of collector's unicorn; out of the more than 77,000 meteorites officially cataloged on Earth, just around 400 (or 0.6%) are confirmed to be from Mars. NWA 16788 alone accounts for a hefty 6.5% of all known Martian material on our planet—and Art News notes it also happens to be 70% bigger than the next biggest piece of Mars known to exist on Earth. Scientists believe this particular rock was blasted off Mars by an asteroid strike before making a 140-million-mile trek through space and eventually landing in Niger's Agadez Region in 2023, where Sotheby's says it was found by a meteorite hunter.

"The odds of this getting from there to here are astronomically small," said Sotheby's science and natural history vice chair Cassandra Hatton. One trivia bit: This is far from the largest meteorite ever found—one found in Namibia topped 100 tons. For the curious masses who don't have millions to spare, the meteorite will be on public display at Sotheby's New York galleries until Tuesday.