A spirited 15-minute bidding war between online and phone participants ultimately landed the ultra-rare specimen with an anonymous buyer, far surpassing its initial estimate of $2-4 million.

Martian meteorite that is the largest known piece of Mars found on Earth has sold for $5.3 million at Sotheby's, setting a new auction record for a meteorite.

A 54-pound meteorite from Mars sold for more than $5 million when it went up for auction on Wednesday at Sotheby's.