How a Maine museum misplaced the biggest piece of Mars on Earth

Sometime within the very distant previous, an asteroid hit Mars with such pressure that rocks from the floor of the planet have been launched into house.

After drifting by means of the photo voltaic system, probably for hundreds of thousands of years, a few of these unlikely meteoroids intersected the Earth’s orbit. A smaller variety of them didn’t solely fritter away within the environment, and an excellent smaller quantity hit land in part of the world the place geography and native curiosity conspired for them to be discovered, which within the overwhelming majority of instances means North Africa.

The largest Martian meteorite ever discovered turned up in Niger in 2023 — a 54-pound rock, now often called NWA 16788. Earlier this month, Sotheby’s in New York auctioned it to an undisclosed buyer for $5.3 million.

Previously, the declare to the biggest piece of Mars on Earth had belonged to the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel, whose in depth meteorite assortment contains the 32-pound meteorite Taoudenni 002.

And earlier than NWA 16788 was even named, the Maine museum nearly obtained that one, too.

Darryl Pitt, a meteorite supplier and advisor engaged on behalf of the museum and its co-founder and benefactor Lawrence Stifler, stated he purchased NWA 16788 in October 2023 for rather less than $500,000.

“The next day I was informed by the dealer (with whom I’ve worked with in the past) that the rock would be imminently shipped to me from Mauritania — and he was on his way to Mauritania to effectuate the same,” Pitt stated just lately in an e-mail from Perth, Australia, the place he was attending the annual assembly of the Meteoritical Society.

No cash had modified but, and when correspondence with the supplier grew to become “distressingly foggy,” Pitt stated he requested for assurances and was quickly pressured to ship the cash to a supplier he was now not sure even had the meteorite. He was later informed a couple of new associate whose fee upped the value by a 3rd.

“I then made a rookie mistake,” stated Pitt, who has been buying and selling meteorites for many years. “I allowed my anger to cloud my perspective and I balked at paying the extra money now being demanded. I was later informed his partner bought out his interest and that the partner sold the rock to a Chinese buyer. Voila.”

Pitt could be the motive NWA 16788 was at a Sotheby’s public sale to start with. A photographer who labored for Rolling Stone and a slew of main touring musicians together with Diana Ross, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Neil Diamond, his curiosity in meteorites began with childhood go to to Meteor Crater in Arizona.

In the Eighties, the experimental harpist and New Age music pioneer Andreas Vollenweider employed Pitt to be his supervisor, launching the photographer into a brand new profession in artist administration that continues as we speak.

The cash was good, he stated, however throughout one high-pressure undertaking with a well-known duo whose relationship had famously fallen aside — he requested that they not be named — the stress was so nice that Pitt began shopping for meteorites to get away from the emotional turmoil, finally touring the world in search of these uncommon rocks that had not solely come from outer house however have been visually appealing, too.

In 1995, he entered a number of of his selection finds into the primary pure historical past public sale in New York City, utilizing his images abilities to emphasise the morphological aesthetics of the meteorites, which had till then been traded nearly solely at rock exhibits and gatherings of newbie astronomers.

“I was just always struck by beautiful, interesting shapes, and I realized I could buy the ugliest meteorite that existed — iron meteorite, specifically — for the exact same amount as the most sublime sculptural object I’ve ever seen,” Pitt stated. “And they all cost the same per unit weight. I thought, this is just wrong.”

Collectors agreed, and the excessive costs fetched on the first auctions motivated a brand new technology of meteorite hunters, which Pitt stated has been a boon to science.

The majority of Martian meteorites have been discovered within the deserts of North Africa, often by Berbers, Bedouins and different nomads who had been crisscrossing the desert however now had an incentive to maintain their eyes on the bottom. These rocks make their approach into the arms of collectors and museums by means of a community of sellers and middlemen, most of whom take pains to remain out of the general public eye, Pitt stated.

“Whenever you see an article about a North African meteorite hunter or dealer — they are never the serious players … not even marginal,” he stated.

Martian meteorites quantity fewer than 400 and will be recognized by evaluating the oxygen isotopes in air bubbles within the rock to the chemistry of air sampled by Mars rovers which have visited the Red Planet.

Pitt acquired Taoudenni 002 for the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum earlier than it opened its doorways in the summertime of 2021 by means of a meteorite and desert truffle hunter he described as “a true friend and a remarkably lovely man” who would by no means converse to a reporter. When the museum opened later that 12 months, it boasted the biggest items of Mars, the Moon and the asteroid Vesta.

After studying of NWA 16788, the museum modified its shows to point Taoudenni 002 is now the second largest piece of Mars on Earth, in keeping with Patrick Leverone, meteorite undertaking director for the museum, although the website still says it’s “home to the largest known pieces of the Moon and Mars.” Likewise, the “Martian meteorite” page on Wikipedia continues to listing Taoudenni 002 as the biggest.

The little museum in Bethel nonetheless holds the biggest assortment of Martian meteorites on the planet and extra items of the moon than NASA and all of the pure historical past museums on the planet, mixed, Pitt stated.

Having the biggest Martian meteorite helped when the museum opened, however Pitt stated it’s not an important factor. Nor is it a everlasting demotion. There are rumors of a nonetheless bigger Martian meteorite, and he’s now awaiting photographs.

And as he realized early on, dimension isn’t the one useful attribute. NWA 16788 could be the largest piece of Mars on Earth, nevertheless it’s additionally a Shergottite, the commonest sort of Martian meteorite.

The museum is about to accumulate a a lot smaller however distinctive Martian rock that Pitt stated will assist “rewrite The Book” on Mars. He was restricted in what he might say forward of an upcoming story in a significant scientific journal.

“It weighs just a bit more than a pound,” he stated, “but as we all know, good things can come in small packages — even from Mars.”