[HN Gopher] Largest piece of Mars on Earth fetches $5.3M at auction
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Largest piece of Mars on Earth fetches $5.3M at auction
Author : avonmach
Score : 38 points
Date : 2025-07-18 20:01 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (apnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
| Sophia95 wrote:
| Was it bought by Elon?
| cbsks wrote:
| It'd be funny if he bought it then returned it to Mars.
| Torwald wrote:
| That would make it even more valuable.
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| Gott in Himmel, to _whom_?
|
| Who on Earth is in the set of peeps who's both wealthy
| enough to do so _and_ lives in awe of Musk? Wouldn 't such
| fool and said fool's money have been parted long ago?
| mongol wrote:
| How do we know that piece of rock originates on Mars?
| ceejayoz wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite
|
| > These meteorites are interpreted as Martian because they have
| elemental and isotopic compositions that are similar to rocks
| and atmospheric gases on Mars, which have been measured by
| orbiting spacecraft, surface landers and rovers.
| colechristensen wrote:
| They were a lot different than other meteorites. Isotope ratios
| are used to date when the rock solidified and they were found
| to be younger. Different isotope ratios which are unique and
| prevalent across different planets were found to be the same as
| on Mars.
|
| Basically there was a rare set of clustered properties which
| were very similar to properties of the rocks and atmosphere on
| mars as tested by our various landers.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite
| treyd wrote:
| A linked article states
|
| > The examination found 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.
|
| And that magma is probably identified by isotopic composition.
| Similar to how we know that the Moon used to be part of Earth.
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| IMHO having "fuck you" money, as opposed to wealth, is
| vulnerable and emotional and therefore ripe for getting rugged,
| eg. You don't see Warren Buffet or even space enthusiasts like
| Bezos and Musk in this fray. At least not publicly. There is
| probably a happy middle between the two though but man I can't
| imagine being that rich and needy and setting off the Spidey-
| sense of every scammer within miles of you. Seriously? "Meteor"
| hunter? Come on, man ...
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Billionaires are wild. Bones of a T-Rex and now extra-planetary
| artifacts. Apparently it's a bragging-rights club?
|
| It's easy to sit on the sidelines and talk about how, if we were
| a billionaire, we would use our money to try to improve the
| planet and the people and animals on it. But I'd still like to
| think though that I would do exactly that.
| selectodude wrote:
| That's the beauty of being a multi-billionaire. You can do
| both. I can sit in my office with a giant chunk of mars and try
| to do decent shit.
| ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote:
| I think I'd put it all in a philanthropic trust and kill myself
| to repent for accumulating that much wealth, but that is
| probably just me.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| If you put it in a philanthropic trust you don't have to
| proceed to step 2.
| cooper_ganglia wrote:
| Yeah, it's just you.
| tpool wrote:
| I think they buy these kinds of things for less philanthropic
| reasons and more for the same reason that the ultra wealthy
| invest in art: an asset that never loses and often increases in
| value. It's a haven for their wealth. If you can "loan" it to
| professionals (e.g. a museum) who will take care of it for
| free, and the public can enjoy it too? It's a solid PR move as
| well.
| tetris11 wrote:
| It's also wealth that can be transferred seemingly without
| any import/export restrictions by an Art Dealer. Because,
| it's art, of course.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| Honestly I'd rather billionaires be connoisseurs of rare
| curiosities than meddle with national and global politics.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Sure. Wish there were more Gates' and Pardons though. (I have
| no idea if Dolly is a "billionaire" but I like what she does
| promoting reading in poor schools.)
| gosub100 wrote:
| They love historical artifacts too. Creating a black market for
| purloined treasures.
| indoordin0saur wrote:
| Before there was such a value placed on history and artifacts
| these things just got melted down (if they contained valuable
| metals) or thrown out.
| chiffre01 wrote:
| For the sake of price stability, let's hope larger pieces are not
| found.
| fsckboy wrote:
| prices are more stable when there is a liquid market
| isoprophlex wrote:
| We saw and touched a smaller, metallic meteorite fragment last
| year in a museum. Touching it was an incredible experience. It
| had a very noticable, distinct smell. I couldnt get enough of
| running my fingers along the cold, pitted surface of it.
|
| One of my kids still sometimes snickers and offhandedly comments
| "this metal was once a star" when he sees or handles solid
| metallic objects.
|
| I'd definitely try to buy something like this if I had "fuck you"
| amounts of money
| Avalaxy wrote:
| > It had a very noticable, distinct smell.
|
| The smell of people's hands touching it repeatedly?
| ljlolel wrote:
| > "this metal was once a star"
|
| So are you...
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Haha yes, but now they get to feel special for identifying
| especially cool bits of star.
| plasticchris wrote:
| Seems like you would need a pretty hot part of a star to
| fuse helium into metal
| ljlolel wrote:
| You are an ESPECIALLY cool bit!
| ElevenLathe wrote:
| Makes me wonder if this is a potential funding stream for private
| Mars missions: Bring back a load of rocks, auction them off on
| Sotheby's. What would be the optimal amount to bring back to make
| a profit (or at least offset some of the costs) without tanking
| the price?
| indoordin0saur wrote:
| Even without tanking the price something tells me there's not a
| huge market for mars rocks.
| autoexec wrote:
| That can always be manufactured with enough money thrown into
| advertising. You can even make claims like how the rocks cure
| cancer and give people better erections if you're careful to
| do it in ways that can't be directly linked back to you.
| indoordin0saur wrote:
| Hmmm.... good idea. PM me. I think we'd be successful
| business partners.
| proteal wrote:
| If you are a monopoly producer (which seems fair in this
| context) you would set the price of the rocks where your
| marginal revenue equals your marginal demand. Loosely, you'd do
| a market survey to see what price the market would be willing
| to pay for a mars rock[0], then figure out your cost structure
| for bringing back one more kilo of rocks. You'd factor in cost
| to launch a rocket, fuel for the rocket, astronaut salaries,
| and don't forget terrestrial costs like marketing and
| distribution! If you did a good enough job at predicting supply
| and demand, you wouldn't actually care what the price of the
| product is because you would have claimed all the consumer
| surplus for yourself :)
|
| To specifically answer the optimal quantity question, the above
| answer implies that you would keep bringing rocks home until
| the cost to bring them back is higher than the price you set.
| To be clear, you could still go out and get more rocks and sell
| them for less and still make a profit, but you wouldn't
| maximize your profit with that strategy. Competitive markets
| nudge behavior towards providing more product for less
| profit/cost which is why we love competition.
|
| [0] Planet money did a great podcast on how to actually do
| this. Here's a link to a transcript (though listening is
| probably best): https://podscripts.co/podcasts/planet-
| money/how-much-for-tha...
| paxys wrote:
| The price is high because the rock is unique. Bring back more
| of them and they will become worthless.
| kulahan wrote:
| I think you'd have to bring back quite a bit before Mars is
| no longer cool to own
| deadbabe wrote:
| The rock will now be broken up and pieces of it will be used for
| expensive Mars edition watches, creating a greater return on this
| $5.3 million investment. Imagine a piece of mars right on your
| wrist.
| FrojoS wrote:
| I sure hope you are wrong. It's not in the article.
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