From The Planet Mars, NWA 14269 — Interior And Exterior Of Martian Meteorite Revealed

This specimen was cut from a Martian meteorite found in the Sahara Desert in 2021. It had been part of a rock on Mars which was launched off the Martian surface by a massive asteroid impact, whose odyssey in interplanetary space perturbed into an Earth-crossing orbit. This was not the short route; based on an analysis of cosmic radiation this meteorite traveled around the Sun for more than a million years.

Apart from highly specific chemical markers, most Martian meteorites — including this example — exhibit an unusually young crystalline age which means they cannot originate from asteroids. Scientists long speculated that Mars was the most likely candidate of origin for an unusual group of meteorites which shared similar characteristics, and in 1995 they were vindicated. The smoking gun was when tiny amounts of gas were discovered within tiny bubbles of impact melt in two suspected Martian meteorites — which are quite similar to the specimen now offered. When the gas was analyzed, it perfectly matched the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking missions. 

The team of scientists performing the analysis on this offering was led by Dr. Anthony Irving, among the world’s foremost experts in the classification of meteorites which originate from the Moon and Mars. The cut and polished surface reveals a diabasic (i.e., a dark, volcanic rock) texture with prismatic clinopyroxene and lathe-like grains of maskelynite (the impact glass which engulfed tiny volumes of Martian atmosphere before solidifying) scattered throughout. Affixed to the meteorite’s textured exterior surface are patches of a tan to chocolate caliche, the result of this meteorite’s residency in the Sahara before it was recovered.

As rare as the Moon is on Earth (every single bit would fit in the back of an SUV), Mars is far more rare still. There are only 275 kilograms of Mars on Earth and as the total weight of NWA 14269 is only 2.85 kilograms, very few specimens will ever be available — and now offered is incontestably an enthralling sample of the planet Mars.

The scientific abstract in which this meteorite is described appears in the 110th Edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin. A copy of this publication accompanies this lot.