ISTANBUL

The largest known piece of Mars on Earth was sold for $5.3 million at a geological and archaeological auction in New York on Wednesday.

The Martian meteorite, named NWA 16788, weighs 25 kilograms (54 pounds) and was discovered in Niger’s Sahara Desert in November 2023, after being blasted from Mars by a powerful asteroid impact and traveling 225 million kilometers to Earth.

Meteorites are pieces of comets, asteroids, or meteoroids that survive traveling through Earth’s atmosphere and land on the surface.

While the final bid for the meteorite was $4.3 million, the total price including fees reached $5.3 million, and the identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed, according to the auction house Sotheby’s.

Described by the auction house as an “unbelievably rare” reddish-brown rock, the meteorite is one of only about 400 Martian meteorites ever discovered on Earth.

It is also 70% larger than the second-largest Martian fragment found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all Martian material currently on the planet.