Skip to main content

Mars Meteorites For Sale

mars meteorites for sale
Martian meteorite that landed in Northwest Africa

We know that pieces of the Red Planet fell here because of the robot Viking spacecraft that landed on Mars in 1976. Six years after those landings, Drs. Johnson and Bogard were studying an unusual meteorite here on Earth, with a most unusual name — Elephant Moraine 79001, found in Antarctica in 1979. The two scientists made an astonishing discovery: tiny amounts of gas trapped within vugs in the 79001 meteorite were a close match to the thin atmosphere of Mars, as recorded by the Viking landers. The experiment was later repeated and confirmed by looking at several other Martian meteorites, clearly indicating their origin point. And what a fiery and furious life they’ve had! Blasted off the surface of their home planet by other meteorite impacts (the impactors likely being large asteroid fragments), they wandered in space until falling here.

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. Aerolite has a variety of meteorites from Mars for sale.

Explore our wide collection of Mars Meteorites For Sale

Martians Have Landed! Northwest Africa 11288 Northwest Africa 12241 Northwest Africa 12269 Northwest Africa 13227 Wan Zawatin 002

Martians Have Landed!

Shop our Mars meteorites and dust collectibles

Northwest Africa 11288

Martian, shergottite Found in Morocco, 2015 A Martian impact melt is most likely the result of a giant meteorite crashing into Mars and melting Martian target rock into a new form. That in itself is remarkable. As any type of impact melt — even in the abundant chondrite family — is highly unusual. So, here we have an exceptionally rare Martian impact melt that also displays vugs. The word vug is a geological term that describes a cavity found within a rock matrix. In terrestrial formations, vugs are a prime environment for the formation of crystals of varying types. Vugs are almost never seen in meteorites. The first known Martian meteorites were identified by the small pockets of Martian atmosphere they contained. It is likely, or possible, that the comparatively large vugs in NWA 11288 once held within them the thin and alien atmosphere of Mars! The total known find weight of this rare meteorite is 407 grams. We have very few slices available.

Northwest Africa 12241

Martian, shergottite Found in Morocco, 2018  

In 2018, Mohamed Brahim Sueilem purchased NWA 12241 from a dealer in Algeria. Many meteorites come from Northwest Africa because the arid climate is ideal for preserving meteorites. Expanses of desert, sparse grasslands, and cover also make it an ideal location for meteorite hunting. 

The Martian material weighs a total of 1,150 grams and consists of fragments, of which a few proudly display black fusion crust. The delicate specimens are pale green and contain white plagioclase. Dr. Tony Irving and Dr. Scott Kuehner of the University of Washington Seattle studied the fragments, determining that they were from Mars. They also found that the fragments were gabbros, and that they contained olivine. Gabbro is formed when magma cools slowly—it is different from basalt, which can be formed by magma but can also be formed by lava. 

Levels of shock are judged to be low, based on the absence of optical effects in plagioclase and the complete lack of any conversion to maskelynite; the presence of widespread microcracks in mafic silicates is the only clear evidence of shock, as noted by the official write up. 

Martian meteorites are incredibly rare; they make up less than 0.5% of all known meteorites. Of those, most are shergottites, which are igneous rocks.

When a meteorite is classified as having Martian origin, it means that it has elemental and isotopic compositions similar to atmospheric gasses and rocks found on Mars. Martian meteorites were likely ejected from the Red Planet after an asteroid impact. The ejected rocks traveled through space, and their trajectory crossed Earth’s orbit; after surviving a fiery fall through our atmosphere, the rocks landed on Earth as meteorites. 

Northwest Africa 12269

Martian, shergottite Found in Ouarzazate, Morocco, July 2018 Little has been documented about the origin of Northwest Africa 12269; it was purchased in Morocco in 2018 and classified at the University of Washington, where scientists recommended the classification of Martian (shergottite). Shergottites are igneous rocks, meaning they likely formed when magma or lava on Mars cooled and solidified. A recently-published document appearing in the 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference revealed that “unpaired” Martian meteorite finds continue to increase year to year, largely due to finds coming out of Northwest Africa. “Paired” meteorite groups refer to those cases in which overwhelming evidence is present suggesting that the meteorites are part of a single fall. In the case of NWA 12269, researchers believe that it, along with NWA’s 12564, 12690, 12262, and 12335, may constitute a larger single find from an unknown site.

Northwest Africa 13227

Martian, shergottite Found in Morocco, 2019 Northwest Africa 13227 was examined and classified by Dr. Anthony Irving of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle and it has been recognized as an authentic piece of Mars by academia. Its official details were published in the Meteoritical Bulletin in 2020.

Wan Zawatin 002

The largest lherzolite with a poikilitic texture ever found, this full slice was taken from an impressive 6.9 kilo stone.