This rock was sold for $4.3 million at a New York auction. Why was it so expensive?

A space rock fetched a whopping $4.3 million at an auctionin New York on Wednesday. The rock pulled in the amount as it was the largest meteorite from Mars ever found on Earth. The meteorite, called NWA 16788, weighed 24.5 kg and was 38.1 inches long, said Sotheby's, a major auction house. The rock was found in Africa's Niger in November 2023. It was 70 per cent larger than the biggest piece of Mars ever discovered on Earth, the auction house claimed.

Meteorites fall on Earth after an asteroid or comet passes through the planet's atmosphere. These rocks are extremely rare to find.

The meteorite, a reddish brown rock, was "unbelievably rare" to find, Sotheby said, adding only 400 such rocks from Mars had ever been discovered on Earth.

Cassandra Hatton, vice-chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby's, said in a video on the internet that the largest piece of Mars on Earth was rare. She described the odds of getting the rock on Earth as "astronomically small".

This is also because 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered in water. Such rocks often fall into water, completely lost to humanity. "So we're incredibly lucky that this landed on dry land instead of the middle of the ocean," she added.

With taxes, the total price of the rock was $5.3 million. It is not known who bought the rock and why.

Such rocks fetch good prices because they are extremely rare to find. They can be used for research or kept in private collections.

Wednesday's auction featured over 100 items, including a skeleton of a dinosaur from the late Jurassic period, which sold for $26 million. A skill of another dinosaur was auctioned off at a whopping $1.4 million.