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(NEW YORK) — The largest Mars meteorite ever found on Earth was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Wednesday for $4.3 million.

The Martian rock, known as NWA 16788, weighs more than 54 pounds, is nearly 15 inches long and is 70% larger than the next biggest piece of Mars that has been recovered, according to the auction house.

Sotheby’s said the piece broke from the surface of Mars following a recent asteroid strike and traveled more than 140 million miles across the Solar System.

It crashed in the Sahara Desert in the Agadez region of Nigeria and was found by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, Sotheby’s said.

“This is the largest piece of Mars on planet Earth. The odds of this getting from there to here are astronomically small,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in a video posted online. “Remember that approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water. So we’re incredibly lucky that this landed on dry land instead of the middle of the ocean where we could actually find it.”

The auction house said the reddish brown rock is “unbelievably rare” because meteorites from Mars make up just 400 of the 77,000 officially recognized meteorites. According to Sotheby’s, the rock that was sold represents 6.5% of all Martian material currently on Earth.

Hatton said a sample of the rock was sent to a specialized laboratory to be tested for Maskelynite glass, which is only found in meteorites.

Testing determined the rock is an olivine-gabbroic shergottite, which is a relatively new type of Martian meteorite, according to an April 2024 report from researchers the U.S. and Canada. It was formed from the as magma on Mars slowly cooled, Sotheby’s said, and contains materials such as olivine, which is also found in Earth’s upper mantle.

“This isn’t just a miraculous find, but a massive data set that can help us unlock the secrets of our neighbor, the red planet,” Hatton said.

Prior to going up for auction at Sotheby’s, the rock was in a public exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome during the 2024 European Researchers’ Night and in a private gallery in Arezzo, Tuscany.

It’s unclear who the current owner is and if the Martian rock will be in a public or a private collection.

Also up for auction was a Ceratosaurus skeleton from the late Jurassic period, about 154 to 149 million years ago, which was sold for $30.5 million, and the skull of a Pachycephalosaurus from the late Cretaceous period 72 million to 66 million years ago for $1.75 million.

Wednesday’s auction, containing 122 items, is part of Sotheby’s Geek Week, which holds sales for items related to natural history, the history of science and technology, and space exploration.

Among the items up for sale on Thursday, the final day of Geek Week, include a first generation of Apple-1 computer from the first batch of 50 built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976.

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(DINOSAUR RIDGE, Colo.) — Researchers have discovered evidence of one of the largest dinosaur mating “dance arenas” in present-day Colorado.

Previous studies have identified a couple of “dinosaur lek” areas — where male dinosaurs likely congregated to perform courtship displays for females, primarily for the purpose of finding a mate — at Dinosaur Ridge, 20 miles west of Denver.

However, using high-resolution drone photography and photogrammetry to make 3D models of the sandstone at Dinosaur Ridge, a team reexamined the area to see if there were more markings on the surface.

What they found were dozens of lek traces tightly clustered together, suggesting the area was once a site to perform mating rituals, similar to some modern-day birds.

“So, these trace fossils, we interpret them to be evidence of dinosaur courtship activities, just from kind of process of elimination,” Caldwell Buntin, co-author of the study and a lecturer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, told ABC News.

Buntin said the team ruled out that these “scrapes” were caused by dinosaurs digging for food and water, from marking their territories or from colonial nesting, which is when animals build their nests close together in groups.

“Basically, these were a lot of organisms that were coming together, performing some kind of activity that would include building some kind of nest to display to a female, and then maybe doing some kind of a dance or scraping activity, which generates a lot of the scrapes around the nest display structure,” Buntin said.

The scrapes belong to theropod dinosaurs, characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb, which were alive during the Cretaceous period, between 145 million and 66 million years ago.

It’s not clear which species made the scrapes, but they were likely three to four feet high at the hip and were between 2.5 and 5 meters (8 to 16 feet) long, from the size of an emu to the size of an ostrich, according to Buntin.

There’s a “spectrum of different scrapes,” according to Buntin. Some are simple, shallow toe claw marks, indicating one or two scrapes from the left and right legs. There are also longer scrapes overprinting one another, resembling a wagon rut.

Additionally, there are semicircular bowl-shaped marks “associated with a step backward” with a second set of scrapes “indicating a counterclockwise or a clockwise turn.” Lastly, there are deep bowl-shaped marks with some shallow toe claw marks, Buntin said.

In terms of behavior, Buntin said these dinosaurs most resemble that of banded plovers, which are small shorebirds.

“Basically, they will dig out a nest display, basically a fake nest, to be able to show a female that, ‘Hey, I’m a strong male. I can dig this. I can make a good, strong place for you to lay your eggs,'” Buntin said. “And then when a female comes to visit, they’ll perform a dance which consists of kind of bowing, bobbing, raising their wings out, creating some scratches around the sides of that display nest.”

The authors emphasized that the site is public, meaning anybody can visit and see the scrapes for themselves compared to other scrap sites, which are on federally protected land.

“It does really make it a very, very unique site, because not only does it have this amazing like type behavior displayed, but it also is so accessible for lots of people to be able to see it and understand better about the behavior of these wonderful animals that we can see now,” Neffra Matthews, study co-author and former employee of the Bureau of Land Management, told ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — A heat advisory is in place across the Northeast, from Maryland to Maine, where residents are bracing for temperatures 5 to 15 degrees above average.

The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could reach 103 degrees in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday.

New York City and Boston could feel like 100 degrees with humidity on Wednesday and Thursday.

Further north, the heat index may climb into the upper 90s in Burlington, Vermont, and Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday.

The dangerous heat is also invading the South and West.

The heat index could hit a scorching 105 to 109 degrees on Wednesday in New Orleans; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

In the West, a heat advisory is in place from Northern California to northern Washington with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above average. Portland, Oregon, could near 100 degrees on Wednesday and Seattle could reach the 90s.

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(MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ) — Police have recommended charges in the drowning of influencer Emilie Kiser’s 3-year-old son, Trigg Kiser, who was found unresponsive in his family’s backyard pool in May.

“After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions,” the Chandler, Arizona, Police Department said in a statement Thursday.

A felony charge of child abuse was recommended by the police department. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has final say in whether charges are actually brought against anyone.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Tennessee is set to hear from federal prosecutors on Wednesday regarding their request that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be detained pending trial.

Last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered Abrego Garcia not to be detained pending trial and set conditions for his release. However, after the federal government requested a stay of the order, a district judge scheduled an evidentiary hearing to allow the government to argue their request for his detention.

Robert E. McGuire, the Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said in a filing that he could call on a Department of Homeland Security official to testify at the hearing about his review of body and camera footage from a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

In a separate filing on Tuesday, McGuire argued Abrego Garcia should be detained pending trial because “there is no combination of bail conditions that can reasonably assure either the safety of the community or the defendant’s appearance in future court proceedings.”

McGuire said that the evidence he presented during a detention hearing last month “was overwhelming, corroborated, and otherwise uncontradicted by anything else in the record.” He also argued the court cannot “be reasonably assured” Abrego Garcia will refrain from committing additional crimes and appear for court proceedings given the likelihood of deportation that he faces.

The government in both the criminal case and the Maryland case has said that Abrego Garcia will likely be deported to a third country if released from criminal custody.

An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified last week in Maryland that Mexico and South Sudan were among a handful of countries where the U.S. has deported noncitizens who have asked not to be returned to their countries of origin out of fear of torture or persecution.

Abrego Garcia’s legal team in the Maryland case requested the court to order that he not be removed from the U.S. without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond from detention in Tennessee.

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(NEW YORK) — A tropical threat on the Gulf Coast has a 40% chance for development into a tropical depression in the next 48 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The system, which could currently be considered a “tropical rainstorm” or “tropical disturbance,” is likely to bring heavy rain to the central Gulf Coast for days — especially to the state of Louisiana.

The disturbance is expected to move along the coast, but the closer it stays to shore, the less chance it will have to grow into a tropical depression or storm since these weather patterns need time over water to develop, though a change to a more southerly track would give it a chance to gain steam.

A flood watch will go into effect at 1 p.m. this afternoon for portions of Louisiana and Mississippi and is expected to last at least through Friday night, with the eastern part of the watch in effect until at least Saturday evening.

This tropical disturbance is expected to produce long duration heavy rainfall and, if it develops into a tropical storm, it would be designated by the name Dexter.

Rainfall totals are generally expected to be between 2 and 6 inches, but the National Weather Service is highlighting some localized areas expected to receive as many as 15 inches in the region.

Elsewhere, heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected today for Ohio, West Virginia all of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey with rainfall rates of potentially more than 2 inches per hour on Wednesday and Thursday.

Storms are expected to begin around 2 p.m. in Ohio and then move east in a very scattered fashion through the afternoon, evening and overnight.

A flood watch is already in place for central and northern New Jersey where 1 to 2 inches of rain could fall in a 1-to-3-hour period, likely in the evening or overnight hours for this location.

A severe risk for damaging wind and tornadoes, along with flash flooding, is in place for portions of Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Peoria.

A flood watch is already in place for Green Bay where they are expecting 2 to 3 inches of rain over a short time span, with locally higher amounts possible, and storms may reach Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay around 4 p.m. local time.

Heavy thunderstorms are also possible late tonight from Kansas to northern Missouri, with rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour possible.

Meanwhile, 70 million Americans are under heat advisories coast-to-coast, with dangerously hot conditions expected today for people in the Northwest, South and Northeast.

For the Northwest, a heat advisory is in place from northern California to northern Washington as Portland, Oregon, could reach near 100 degrees and Seattle, Washington, could hit the low to mid 90s — temperatures that are 10 to 15 degrees above average.

A heat advisory is in effect for parts of the South from Louisiana to Illinois, with a heat index up to 105 to 109 possible, including New Orleans, Memphis, Little Rock and Shreveport — temperatures that are 5 to 10 degrees above average.

The United States is now heading into the hottest part of the year, climatologically, and this weekend looks seasonally hot across the nation, with above average heat possible next week, especially for the Midwest, South and East, meaning temperatures in the upper 90s and lower 100s, with humidity making things worst for these regions.

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(BOSTON) — A woman who served on the grand jury as part of the high-profile investigation into Karen Read — who was acquitted of murder charges last month in the death of her boyfriend — agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge she leaked information from the secret proceeding, according to a court document filed Tuesday.

Jessica Leslie agreed to plead guilty to a charge of criminal contempt that accused her of willfully disobeying court rules against disclosure of grand jury information.

Leslie disclosed “the names of various witnesses appearing before the grand jury and the substance of their testimony and other evidence presented to the grand jury, all while said information was under seal and not subject to disclosure,” federal prosecutors said.

While the charging document did not specify that Leslie was a grand juror in the Read case, sources confirmed the case to ABC News.

Read was originally indicted by a Boston grand jury in June 2022 in the death of her police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her car outside the home of a fellow police officer after a night of heavy drinking in January 2022 and then left him to die there during a major blizzard.

The first trial ended in a mistrial last year after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

In a second trial that ended last month, Read was found not guilty of the most serious charges against her — murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene after an accident. She was convicted of operating under the influence of liquor and sentenced to one year of probation.

Leslie agreed to a sentence of incarceration for one day, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release, court records said.

A plea hearing was not immediately scheduled.

Federal prosecutors did not say how they learned Leslie had disclosed secret grand jury information, but sources said authorities had been monitoring social media accounts and other communications during a case that received widespread attention.

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(LOS ANGELES) — The U.S. military presence in Los Angeles is being reduced by almost half as the Pentagon confirms that 2,000 California National Guard members are being withdrawn from the mission to protect federal buildings and personnel that followed protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles.

“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th [Infantry Brigade Combat Team]) from the federal protection mission,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement provided to ABC News.

Nearly 4,700 personnel had been provided to that mission with 700 of them being active-duty Marines and the remaining 4,000 coming from the California National Guard.

The initial deployment of 2,000 California National Guard members to Los Angeles was announced on June 7.

At the time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that he was prepared to send active-duty Marines “if violence continues.” Two days later, U.S. Northern Command announced that 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms in California were being deployed to Los Angeles.

An additional 2,000 National Guard members were later mobilized for the mission in Los Angeles.

Some of the Guard members later received specific training to provide perimeter security during ICE operations and were not carrying out law enforcement duties. However, they were authorized to temporarily detain individuals if needed and then quickly turn them over to law enforcement personnel.

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(IRMO, SC) — The family of a South Carolina man who died three days after being arrested last month demanded the release of police body camera video and answers regarding his death on Tuesday.

Byron Jackson, 45, died in the days after his June 22 arrest by the Irmo Police Department, following a 911 call alleging that someone had gotten into a fight, according to his family’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers. The lawyer said that Jackson was not involved in a fight and the cause of his death is unclear.

“I can tell you that we’re not going to allow the Irmo Police Department just to treat him as some other young African American kid,” Sellers said at a press conference on Tuesday. “He’s dead now. You guys going about your business — that’s not going to happen on our watch.”

Byron Jackson’s mother Bettie Jackson, who was present at the news conference with other family members, was visibly distraught.

“We all loved him dearly, and we talked two and three times a day, and I’m surely, surely going to miss him,” Bettie Jackson said. “In fact, not ‘am going to miss him’ — I’m missing him already.”

Irmo Police Chief Bobby Dale told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has taken over the investigation and that he could not make any further statements to ensure the process is conducted appropriately.

Also Tuesday, SLED confirmed in a statement to ABC News that Byron Jackson died on June 25 in the hospital, three days after the arrest. They said that the investigation is ongoing, and more information may be available at “a later time.”

The Richland County Coroner’s Office did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for Byron Jackson’s autopsy and cause of death.

“We do know that the Irmo Police Department can release the body cam,” Sellers said. “We do know that body cam footage does exist, and we’re asking them to do that.”

Sellers requested the release of the identities of the officers involved. He also denied the police department’s alleged account that a high-speed chase ensued before Byron Jackson’s arrest, or that he was involved in a fight before police arrived. Sellers said he doesn’t know why a 911 call was made in regard to Byron Jackson.

“This started with a 911 call from a resident of Irmo. I’m not sure what she thought she saw,” Sellers said. “I can’t go into her head, but there was not a fight in the vehicle. There was one person — who was Byron — in that vehicle. That is a fact.”

Sellers also said that Byron Jackson was in a work utility van that had “its own issues” and that he knew from investigators that there was no high-speed chase.

The attorney said that, after police arrived, there was a low-speed collision, Byron Jackson and an officer ended up at the bottom of a ravine and the South Carolina resident was handcuffed. After that, Sellers said he died and the family doesn’t know how.

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(JONES, OK) — A farmer in Oklahoma has been killed by two water buffaloes after becoming trapped inside their enclosure, police said.

The incident occurred on Friday evening in Jones, Oklahoma, at approximately 8:35 p.m. when officers from the Jones Police Department and the Jones Fire Department responded to an emergency call regarding an individual who had been attacked by two water buffalo at a farm located at 7501 North Henney Road, officials said.

“Upon arrival, first responders were initially unable to reach the victim due to the aggressive behavior of the animals,” said the Jones Police Department in a statement on social media released on Monday. “One water buffalo was immediately dispatched to allow safe access to the scene.”

But when responders gained entry to the enclosure, they discovered that the victim, named as Bradley McMichael, had sustained “multiple deep lacerations that proved to be fatal,” officials said.

“While investigators were processing the scene, a second water buffalo became increasing agitated and posed a threat to emergency personnel,” police said. “For the safety of those on site, the second animal was also dispatched. Evidence gathered at the scene confirmed that the water buffaloes were responsible for Mr. McMichael’s fatal injuries.”

Police discovered during the investigation that McMichael had purchased the two water buffaloes just the day before at a livestock auction and that it is believed he became trapped inside their enclosure while tending to the animal, according to the Jones Police Department.

The office of the chief medical examiner subsequently took custody of McMichael and transported him to their facility for further examination.

The investigation is currently ongoing.

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