By BlueShift | 2025-08-25

The ongoing debate over the ownership of a Martian meteorite discovered in Niger in 2023 and sold at auction in New York in August has brought to light gaps in legislation defining the provenance of space rocks.

Several United Nations conventions touch on the ownership of space rocks, including the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which establishes the principle of non-appropriation of celestial bodies, including meteors.

But this treaty does not explicitly address ownership of resources extracted from these bodies, and does not assign provenance when these bodies fall to Earth.

Legislation pertaining to ownership of extracted resources is expected to face heightened attention as international space missions increase in frequency and scope.

Simultaneously, as debate over the provenance of the Martian meteorite shows, a patchwork of national laws governing the provenance of space rocks discovered on Earth is likely to expand.

A rare rock

The space rock at the center of the current controversy, a 54-pound (25kg) Martian meteorite discovered in the Saharan desert in November 2023, is the largest ever discovered on Earth, per Sotheby's New York.

It was sold by an undisclosed seller to an undisclosed buyer for about $5.3 million -- the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction, the auctioneers said.

Martian meteorites are rare -- with just over 400 known to exist globally, out of a total of around 80,000 meteorites -- and can be hard to identify, according to the Natural History Museum in London, which has 20 of them in its collection.

To date, no space missions have brought back rock samples from Mars for scientists to study, so "these chance Martian meteorite findings are a vital way to learn more about the planet," according to the museum's website.

The museum noted that the Nakhla meteorite, which landed in Egypt in 1911, has pointed toward the potential of water on the Red Planet.

"Meteorites can fall anywhere on Earth, but because of the favorable climate for preservation and the lack of human disturbance, the Sahara has become a prime spot for their discovery," according to a BBC report.

But while a series of global agreements have tried to regulate the trade in meteorites, there remains some ambiguity about whether they are covered by these agreements, it said, and is left to individual states to clarify the position.

Laws governing the ownership of meteorites vary based on their point of impact, according to AFP. In the United States, for example, if a rock falls on private land, the property owners have ownership rights.

Scientific and ethical questions

The Nigerien government has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the Martian meteorite’s discovery and sale, led by its ministries of mines, security, higher education and justice.

It also has suspended exports of meteorites.

Like many countries, Niger does not have specific legislation regarding meteorites.

It does have a law that governs "national cultural patrimony," however, which includes rare mineralogical specimens, per professor Matthieu Gounelle of France's National History Museum, and university professor Max Gounelle.

"In our opinion, there is no doubt that meteorites should be included among the rare mineralogical specimens" protected by Nigerien law, they told AFP.

Beyond the legal battle and the possible involvement of a trafficking network, the sale of the meteorite also raises science ethics questions.

The Martian rock, named NWA 16788, has unique scientific research value.

"This is nature's heritage," said US paleontologist Paul Sereno, who has worked closely with Niger's authorities and has spoken against the meteorite's sale.

"In many ways, it's world heritage, and it's telling us things about the cosmos. We should respect it," he said.

"It's not something to my mind that should be auctioned up to potentially disappear into someone's mantle."