Somebody paid $5.3 million for a bit of Mars

Add this to the record of “issues that is likely to be enjoyable for those who had a buttload of cash”: Somebody forked over $5.3 million in a Sotheby’s auction to personal a bit of Mars. The Purple Planet meteorite was found in 2023 in a distant space of the Sahara Desert in Niger.

Martian meteorites of any measurement are extremely uncommon. To get right here, an asteroid first hits the Purple Planet to eject materials from its floor. (Sotheby’s says there are solely 19 Martian craters massive sufficient to have spit out this one.) That chunk then has to journey 140 million miles via area to achieve Earth. Solely 400 of the 77,000+ formally acknowledged meteorites hail from Mars.

The meteorite is called NWA 16788. Its reddish-brown, scarred exterior virtually appears just like the Purple Planet’s floor in miniature.

That is additionally an exceptionally massive Martian meteorite. It is about 70 p.c bigger than the second-biggest piece of Mars discovered on Earth. It measures 14.75 x 11 x 6 inches and weighs over 54 lbs. It is sufficiently big to symbolize about 6.5 p.c of all recognized Martian materials on our planet.

The profitable bid was for $4.3 million. After charges, that comes out to over $5.3 million, making it essentially the most useful meteorite ever offered.

Earlier than bidding, the public sale home despatched a small piece of the area rock to a lab, which confirmed its distinctly Martian chemical composition. Over 21 p.c of the rock consists of maskelynite, a glass produced when the asteroid struck the Martian floor.