Sweden rules on who owns meteorite
Sides with owner of land it struck
STOCKHOLM — the iron rock’s journey from the depths of space ended with a thud in a dense pine forest, about an hour north of Stockholm, around 10 on a november night four years ago.
Unusually, its trajectory was caught on several cameras in the region used to track meteoroids. that led to a weekslong hunt and an even longer court battle over an unusual question: Who owns an unearthly object that falls to Earth?
the legal case took another turn on thursday when an appeals court ruled in favor of the landowner, overturning a decision that had sided with the two men who had recovered the meteorite.
Days after the rock landed, Anders Zetterqvist, a geologist, found the site where it first hit the ground. After several weeks of searching, his friend, Andreas forsberg, a fellow geologist, found the 30-pound chunk sticking out of the moss where it had ricocheted, about 230 feet away.
“It was the find of a lifetime for me,” he said. “It was so spectacular. And to know that it was just a couple of weeks old.”
most meteoroids that make it to Earth’s atmosphere burn up on entry, leaving only a trace of light, called a meteor, in the sky. the meteorite north of Stockholm, made of iron, was the 10th fresh-fall meteorite — newly landed, rather than older and buried in the ground — to have been found in Sweden and one of only a handful of fresh-fall iron meteorites found in the world, forsberg said.
After a few weeks, the men took the rock to the Swedish museum of natural History, where it has been held since 2020.
“We were afraid that hundreds of people from all over would show up to search for more,” forsberg added. “Better and bigger pieces could leave the country before we knew it.”
Dan Holtstam, a senior researcher in the museum’s department of geosciences, said, “It’s a textbook example of an iron meteorite.”
“In almost 40 years in geoscience, it was the first time I laid my hands on a newly fallen meteorite,” Holstam added.
In addition to their scientific value, meteorites are prized by collectors. In the global market of private collectors, one like this could garner tens of thousands of dollars, Holtstam said.
About a week after the geologists went public with their find, the owner of the estate where the meteorite had been found, Johan Benzelstierna von Engestrom, sent a letter to the museum claiming ownership. the legal battle ensued. laws regulating the ownership of found meteorites vary from country to country. In Sweden, there are none. In france and morocco, on the other hand, “the first to put his or her hands on it has ownership of it,” Holtstam said. In Denmark, they are the property of the state.