National Museum wins 4.56 billion-year-old meteorite – 04/13/2023 – Science

The Santa Filomena meteorite was presented this Thursday (13) as the first piece to be incorporated into the collection of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro since the fire destroyed its headquarters in 2018. Researchers from the institution exhibited the recovered 2.8 kg rock in Santa Filomena, Pernambuco, after the fall of several fragments in the place in 2020.

The piece, estimated to be 4.56 billion years old, will be on display at Palácio São Cristóvão next year, in the first part of the museum to be recovered. The forecast is that the reopening of the main entrance and the access hall will take place on June 6, 2024.

As for the work on the museum’s entire complement, it should be ready by the end of 2026. It is estimated that 85% of the 20 million specimens that were in the building were destroyed during the more than six hours of fire on the night of September 2, 2018.

“Next year, on June 6th, this place will be open and restored to the public. This work shows, once again, that the professionals at the National Museum continue to generate quality research and establish partnerships, demonstrating that the institution is more alive than ever,” said the institution’s director, Alexander Kellner.

The new piece now joins others in the museum’s collection, which also includes the largest meteorite ever found on Brazilian soil, the Bendegó stone, found in the 18th century in the backlands of Bahia.

According to researcher Elizabeth Zucolotto, Santa Filomena is classified as a chondrite, which are rocky meteorites commonly found. “It’s a more common meteorite, but what’s not common is rain on top of a city. Lots of pieces, mostly small ones.”

The fall of Santa Filomena took place on the afternoon of August 19, 2020, in the city that bears the name of the play, in the backlands of Pernambuco. Residents heard a bang accompanied by the fall of several fragments from the sky. One of them even broke the roof of a house.

The following day, a group of researchers from UFRJ, linked to the National Museum, arrived in the city to begin the study to identify the stones found.

The piece becomes even more special, according to the researchers, for being representative of the beginnings of the Solar System. She came from the asteroid belt, a space without planets, which lies between Mars and Jupiter.

“It has spherical structures called chondros, intact for 4.56 billion years. They are traces of what our primordial Solar System was like and give us clues as to how planetary bodies, asteroids and comets were formed”, said researcher Amanda Tosi.

The research on Santa Filomena was coordinated by the Meteoríticas study group, with researchers Amanda Tosi, Elizabeth Zucolotto, Diana Andrade and Sara Nunes. The work was published by the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

The study is also signed by amateur astronomer Marcelo Zurita, from Bramon (Rede Brasileira de Monitoring de Ateroides), who managed to record the impact of the celestial bolide that exploded, originating the other fragments. Scientists from Unesp (São Paulo State University) also helped track the trajectory of the object in space.

Regulation of possession of meteorites

The episode in Santa Filomena triggered a race of meteorite hunters generating controversy over the right to possess these rocks. A bill, still pending, discusses how this heritage should be treated in Brazil.

On the one hand, there are researchers who are reluctant to sell and own meteorites and, on the other, those who support regulation. The legislation provides, however, a percentage of the rock for science, releasing the remainder for commerce.

Researcher Elizabeth Zucolotto claims that the sale of meteorite property regulated by law makes it impossible for them to leave the country illegally. For her, this indicates that there will be sufficient inspection to prohibit smuggling.