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 located 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 considered 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 ascertained it in Niger in November Sotheby s says The red brown and gray hunk is about larger than the next largest piece of Mars exposed on Earth and represents nearly of all the Martian material at this moment 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 revealed by a long shot Cassandra Hatton vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby s revealed 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 discovered on Earth Sotheby s says Hatton mentioned a small piece of the red planet remnant was removed and sent to a specialized lab that authenticated 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 reported The examination revealed 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 mentioned So that was their first clue that this wasn t just specific big rock on the ground she revealed 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 apparently happened in modern years Sotheby s mentioned The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was detected in near Laramie Wyoming at Bone Cabin Quarry a gold mine for dinosaur bones Specialists assembled nearly fossil bones with chosen 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 communicated from Hartford Connecticut