A 54-pound (24.67 kg) Martian meteorite, the largest ever discovered on Earth, is set to go up for auction at Sotheby’s Geek Week in New York on July 16, 2025.
Axar.az, citing AP, reports that the rare rock, named NWA 16788, is expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million.
Believed to have been blasted off Mars by an asteroid strike, the meteorite traveled roughly 140 million miles before landing in the Sahara Desert, where it was found in Niger in November 2023. Sotheby’s says it makes up nearly 7% of all Martian material found on Earth and is about 70% larger than the next biggest known piece.
This natural wonder is joined by another show-stopper: a mounted juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton from the Late Jurassic period, measuring over 6 feet tall and nearly 11 feet long. It’s estimated at $4 to $6 million and was unearthed in Wyoming in 1996.
Sotheby’s Geek Week auction will feature 122 items including meteorites, fossils, and high-quality minerals, making it a haven for collectors of natural history.