NWA 5790 — AN EXOTIC SPECIMEN OF THE PLANET MARS — ABUNDANT SPECULAR HIGHLIGHTS AND FUSION CRUST ACCENT SELECT SAMPLE OF THE NEWEST NAKHLITE
SNC (nakhlite)
Mauritania / Erfoud, Morocco

This large fragment of NWA 5790 (the 5790th meteorite from Northwest Africa to be analyzed and classified by scientists) is remarkable for any number of reasons. Most significantly, it is a piece of the planet Mars—among the rarest materials on Earth. The bulk chemistry analysis of its elemental ratios confirms Martian origin, and the scientific abstract referencing the same in the Meteoritical Bulletin—the scientific publication of record—accompanies this specimen. While the indicators of Martian origin are many, the smoking gun is that other suspected Martian samples with a similar bulk chemistry as this offering were found to contain tiny glass-like bubbles with small samples of gas that perfectly matched the atmospheric signature of Mars (as determined by the unmanned Viking lander in 1976). NWA 5790 belongs to the exotic nakhlite category of Mars rocks (named for the specimens recovered from the 1911 meteorite shower in Nakhla, Egypt—and this is only the 7th nakhlite of more than 40,000 meteorites known to exist. Found in Mauritania by nomadic Berbers, this stone was later sold to Aziz Habibi, a pre-eminent meteorite broker in Erfoud, Morocco.

NWA 5790 is matrix-poor and possesses a significantly higher proportion of mesostasis (the glassy insterstitial material in igneous rocks) than other nakhlites, and also possesses the highest Rare Earth Elements concentrations ever reported for nakhlite. This rectangular specimen is one of the few to contain fusion crust. The fractured dark grey matrix is accented by bright specular highlights, the result of a dappling of glass-like particles, which are seen to best advantage when the specimen is rotated under a bright light. This is a notable offering of a choice specimen of an exotic Martian meteorite.

23 x 19 x 10mm (1 x .75 x 0.4 inches) and 7.12 grams

$8,500