Northwest Africa (NWA) 12269 Martian meteorite fragment (shergottite), weighing 3.2 grams and measuring approximately 46 mm x 20 mm x 1.5 mm. The improbable origin story of Martian meteorites makes them plenty rare—what are the chances that something would be blasted off a smaller planet that is, on average, 140 million miles away and then land on ours? Couple that with the fact that Martian meteorites are fragile; they are essentially cooled lava from another planet and contain little or no metal, meaning that—unlike most meteorites—metal detectors and magnets cannot be used to recover them, making them notoriously difficult to identify and recover in the field. As an actual piece of Mars, this is a highly desirable meteorite. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Aerolite Meteorites.
