The biggest piece of Mars on Earth is going up for auction in New York

NEW YORK AP For sale A -pound -kilogram rock Estimated auction price million to million Why so expensive It s the largest piece of Mars ever discovered on Earth Sotheby s in New York will be auctioning what s known as NWA on Wednesday as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that s more than feet meters tall and nearly feet meters long According to the auction house the meteorite is supposed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling million miles million kilometers to Earth where it crashed into the Sahara A meteorite hunter identified it in Niger in November Sotheby s says The red brown and gray hunk is about larger than the next largest piece of Mars ascertained on Earth and represents nearly of all the Martian material in the present on this planet Sotheby s says It measures nearly inches by inches by inches millimeters by millimeters by millimeters This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever discovered by a long shot Cassandra Hatton vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby s stated in an interview So it s more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars It is also a rare find There are only Martian meteorites out of the more than officially recognized meteorites revealed on Earth Sotheby s says Hatton declared a small piece of the red planet remnant was removed and sent to a specialized lab that ratified it is from Mars It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in she commented The examination detected that it is an olivine-microgabbroic shergottite a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma It has a course-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine Sotheby s says It also has a glassy surface likely due to the high heat that burned it when it fell through Earth s atmosphere Hatton noted So that was their first clue that this wasn t just specific big rock on the ground she stated The meteorite previously was on exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome Sotheby s did not disclose the owner It s not clear exactly when the meteorite hit Earth but testing shows it likely happened in new years Sotheby s noted The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was ascertained in near Laramie Wyoming at Bone Cabin Quarry a gold mine for dinosaur bones Specialists assembled nearly fossil bones with several sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it s ready to exhibit Sotheby s says The skeleton is thought to be from the late Jurassic period about million years ago Sotheby s says It s auction estimate is million to million Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were bipeds with short arms that appear similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex but smaller Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to feet meters long while the Tyrannosaurs rex could be feet meters long The skeleton was acquired last year by Fossilogic a Utah-based fossil preparation and mounting company Wednesday s auction is part of Sotheby s Geek Week and features items including other meteorites fossils and gem-quality minerals Collins disclosed from Hartford Connecticut