Meteorites are fragments of other worlds. Is it possible to sell meteorites?

The first lines of the historical novel by the Belarusian-Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz “With Fire and Sword” describe the solar eclipse of 1647 and the appearance in the sky of a comet burning like a star, which, according to ancient beliefs, brings wars, disasters and epidemics. The appearance of the star wanderer was recorded in historical chronicles, as well as in chronicles. Some researchers suggest that this comet, most likely, was the Bragin meteorite, which, when it exploded, rained stars on the earth, consisting of iron fragments of various sizes, and covered a significant area, looking like an elongated ellipse 15 kilometers long.

The Bragin meteorite, which belongs to a rare type of meteorite called pallasites, was found by accident in 1807 by peasants of the Bragin region in Belarus in a marshy area. But even today, fragments are still found on the territory of the Braginsky district when digging pits or digging wells. The largest fragment is considered to be a found fragment weighing two hundred and seventy kilograms.

Since they have the same structure and composition, this suggests that a strong meteor shower of pallasites fell here many years ago. The meteorite, before reaching the ground, disintegrated into small pieces in the atmosphere. The entire area where the meteorites were found extends approximately 15 km.

The first fragments of a meteorite found at the beginning of the nineteenth century were taken to Moscow as ordinary scrap iron. There the merchant Sitnikov drew attention to them and immediately appreciated the non-standard nature of the find. He bought the goods at a bargain price for iron raw materials and very successfully resold them in England at a much higher cost, already as a meteorite.

Section of the Bragin meteorite

In 1882, the Brenham meteorite was found in the United States, in Kansas. The story of its discovery was not entirely ordinary.

Farmer Kimberly collected about a ton of stones on his estate at the insistence of his wife Eliza, who claimed that they were meteorites. But it was not until 1890 that a geology professor at the University of Wisconsin confirmed that these stones were indeed meteorites and acquired several samples.

Famous meteorite hunters found many fragments of the Brenham meteorite in these parts in 1930, and amateur geologist Stockwell from Hutchinson was lucky enough to discover a stone weighing 453 kilograms in 1947

In 2005, Steve Arnold, an English actor, followed the sound of his metal sensor and headed towards a 650 kg meteorite fragment. This meteorite, which originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, fell on our planet more than a thousand years ago. After Steve started digging with a shovel in the area where the increasingly stronger signals were coming from, he was forced to use an excavator to finally dig up the huge rock.

It wasn't just a big iron rock, this meteorite had beautiful green crystals. Thus, Steve Arnold managed to find the largest meteorite of this type on our planet. Everyone who was lucky enough to see this meteorite repeats that it is simply impossible to describe it in words. This extraterrestrial stone is a must see. A meteorite is a real work of art, only the creator of this work was not man, but Nature itself.

The extremely rare stone, which has been featured in museums in Kansas and Texas and at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in Arizona, recently came up for sale.

Steve Arnold planned to receive at least one million dollars for this unusual stone. Potential clients who may respond to an offer to buy this rarity include museums, various corporations, as well as fairly large sellers of meteorites.
And the meteorite field where Steve Arnold found his stone has been used as a filming location for several television documentaries.

In 1902, a palassite meteorite known as Marjalahti fell in Karelia. As it fell, it hit a rock ledge, broke into pieces and sank in Lake Marjalahti, a bay of Lake Ladoga. Local residents witnessed this fall. In June 1902, after a long search, one of the meteorite fragments weighing 45 kg was recovered from the lake. Now it is in the geological museum of the University of Helsinki, since this territory at that time belonged to Finland.

After the meteorite was examined, the precious olivine crystals within it were determined to be of such high quality that they were adopted as the official standard.

Already today, several teams of “hunters” have set out in search of an expensive meteorite. “But there was a war in this place, and there is a huge amount of iron in the lake. And our devices are simply glitchy,” say the “meteorite hunters.” According to them, only one diver found the fragment.

EKATERINBURG, September 29 – RIA Novosti. A resident of Chelyabinsk put up for sale a fragment of a meteorite weighing about 3.4 kilograms - the largest fragment of this celestial body found, the authenticity of which has now been confirmed by scientists.

Earlier it was reported that specialists from Chelyabinsk State University (CSU) confirmed the authenticity of a fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite weighing 3.4 kilograms, which was found by a resident of the region near the village of Timiryazevsky. The owner of the object was issued a corresponding certificate. At the same time, the fragment became lighter to 3.36 kilograms, since a piece was cut off for research.

“I’m selling the Chelyabinsk meteorite with a certificate. This fragment is officially recognized as the largest found,” such a message can be found on one of the popular ad sites. Price - 2.112 million rubles. As the author, Chelyabinsk resident Alexey Usenkov, told RIA Novosti, he determined it without involving experts: “the price is taken from the minimum possible price for this meteorite and the maximum possible.”

“I think that this stone can become one of the symbols of some new shopping and entertainment center in the city of Chelyabinsk,” said the agency’s interlocutor, noting that he does not intend to reduce the price and expects to sell the fragment before the anniversary of the meteorite fall – February 15.

“I used to say that I don’t plan to sell it yet, but it was unclear with Lake Chebarkul what would happen there. And when it became known that mine sooner or later would not be the largest, I decided to sell it. The fact is that if mine were the largest, then it belongs in a museum,” Usenkov explained.

Now specialists are working to search for and recover an alleged meteorite fragment weighing several hundred kilograms from Lake Chebarkul. According to the Minister of Radiation and Environmental Safety of the region, Alexander Galichin, it should be raised by October 4. During the operation, divers recovered several stones that could be fragments of a celestial body, one of them weighs 4.8 kilograms.

How a meteorite fell in the Urals

The meteorite, later named "Chelyabinsk", fell on February 15. The fall of the space object was reported not only by residents of the Chelyabinsk region, but also of Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Kostanay (the administrative center of the Kostanay region in northern Kazakhstan) and the Kurgan region. The blast wave broke windows in more than 7 thousand buildings, of which more than 6 thousand were residential buildings. According to the Ministry of Regional Development, more than 1.6 thousand people sought medical help, mostly injured by broken glass. As scientists have established, the asteroid that fell in the Chelyabinsk region may have experienced collisions with other cosmic bodies or flew very close to the Sun. What types of meteorites are there?

Chemical analysis of fragments of the celestial body showed that this is an ordinary chondrite of type LL5 - one of the types of stony meteorites. It is believed that the largest fragment of the meteorite fell into Lake Chebarkul. UrFU scientists suggested that several large fragments may lie at the bottom of the reservoir.

How the Russians tried to turn a meteor shower into gold

The Chelyabinsk region, which had barely recovered from the meteor shower, was gripped by a new misfortune: local residents rushed to look for meteorite fragments, hoping to then sell them to collectors at online auctions. Enterprising people from other countries hastened to embrace the idea of ​​Chelyabinsk residents. Scientists warn: it is quite difficult to distinguish a real meteorite from debris. The police have opened a hunt for space rock sellers.

Our planet is surrounded by a huge number of different celestial bodies. Small ones, when falling to Earth, go unnoticed, but the fall of larger ones, weighing up to several hundred kilograms and even tons, leaves various consequences. Scientists from the Canadian Astrophysical Institute in Ottawa claim that a meteorite shower with a total weight of more than 20 tons hits the Earth's surface every year. The weight of individual meteorites ranges from several grams to tons.

(23 photos of meteorites + video)

The largest meteorites that fell on Earth

On April 22, 2012, a celestial body appeared near the surface of the Earth, moving at tremendous speed. Flying over the US states of Nevada and California, scattering hot particles, the meteorite exploded in the sky over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT, which is almost eighty times less than the power of the explosion. Research by scientists has established that the Sutter Mill meteorite was formed during the formation of the solar system.

A year has already passed since February 2012, when hundreds of meteorite rocks fell over an area of ​​100 km in China. Eyewitnesses still remember this extraordinary event. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg.

Near Lake Titicaca in Peru, in the fall of 2007, a meteorite fell, which eyewitnesses observed as a falling body engulfed in fire. The fall of the meteorite was accompanied by a loud noise, reminiscent of the sound of a falling plane.

At the crash site, a crater 6 m deep and 30 m in diameter formed, from which a fountain of hot water burst out. The consequences of the meteorite fall are still felt by local residents.

Most likely, the celestial body contained toxic substances; 1,500 people living in the area closest to the crash site suffer from severe headaches.

In the summer of 1998, a meteorite fell near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench, which received the name of the city. The fall of the celestial body was accompanied by a bright light. At the site where the largest meteorite fragment (weighing 820 kg) fell, a five-meter crater formed. Fortunately, no local residents were injured; the meteorite fell on a cotton field.

Scientists have established the age of the Turkmen meteorite - more than 4 billion years, this is the largest among the stone meteorites that fell on the territory of the CIS. Among all the known stone meteorites that fell to Earth, Kunya-Urgench is the third largest. Stone meteorites most often fall to Earth, their share is almost 93% of all types of celestial bodies that fell on the planet. The Chelyabinsk meteorite, according to the first estimates of scientists, was iron.

Meteorite Sterlitamak, 1990

On the night of May 17, 1990, a celestial body weighing 315 kilograms fell 20 kilometers from Sterlitamak. The meteorite, called Sterlitamak, left a crater with a diameter of 10 meters at the site of its impact on a state farm field. The largest fragment was not found immediately, but only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters. Nowadays it is an exhibit of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography. The meteorite, weighing 315 kilograms, has dimensions of 0.5x0.4x0.25 meters.

In March 1976, the largest shower of rock meteorites in history occurred in the Chinese province of Jilin. The fall of cosmic bodies to Earth continued for 37 minutes, the speed of the fall reached 12 kilometers per second. About a hundred meteorites were found, the largest of which was named Jilin (Girin), weighing 1.7 tons.

In the winter of 1947, a meteorite fell in the form of iron rain in the Far Eastern Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains. Having fragmented in the atmosphere as a result of the explosion, the meteorite turned into many fragments that fell over an area of ​​10 sq. km. In places where the debris fell, more than 30 craters were formed, from 7 to 28 m in diameter, up to 6 m deep.

About 27 tons of meteorite debris were found over a vast area.

The largest meteorite currently known to science is called Goba. An iron giant with a volume of 9 cubic meters and weighing almost 66 tons fell to the surface of the Earth in prehistoric times. After lying on Earth for approximately 80,000 years, in 1920 the meteorite was found in Namibia.

The Goba meteorite is the heaviest of all cosmic bodies that has ever hit the surface of our planet. It consists mainly of iron. Now it is the largest piece of naturally occurring iron on Earth. It still lies in Namibia, southwest Africa. Since its discovery, the meteorite has lost almost 6 tons in weight as a result of scientific research, erosion and vandalism. Now it weighs 60 tons.

The mysterious Tunguska meteorite is considered one of the most studied on the planet, but continues to remain the most mysterious phenomenon of the beginning of the last century. On June 30, 1908, in the early morning, a giant fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei River basin. Over an uninhabited taiga region, the object exploded at an altitude of 7-10 km. The blast wave circled the globe twice and was so powerful that it was recorded by all observatories in the world.

The power of the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite is equal to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb - 40-50 kilotons. The space giant, presumably weighing from 100 thousand tons to 1 million tons, rushed at speeds of tens of kilometers per second.

The blast wave felled trees over an area of ​​more than 200 sq. km, and window panes were broken in houses. Within a radius of 40 kilometers, animals died and people were injured. After the explosion, an intense glow of the sky and clouds was observed over a vast area for several days.

The answer to the question: what was that? - still no. If the fireball was a meteorite, then a gigantic crater with a depth of at least 500 m should have appeared at the crash site. But in all subsequent years it was never found. The Tunguska meteorite remains a mystery of the 20th century. The celestial body exploded in the air, the consequences were colossal, and no remains or debris were ever found on Earth.

Meteor shower, USA, 1833

On an autumn November night in 1833, a meteorite rained over the United States. Within 10 hours, meteorites of various sizes fell on the surface of the Earth, the total number of which exceeded 240,000. The source of this phenomenon was the most powerful of the currently known meteorite showers, which is called the Leonids.

About two dozen meteorite showers pass near the Earth every day. Scientists know about 50 comets that theoretically have the potential to cross the Earth's orbit. About once every ten years the Earth collides with relatively small cosmic bodies. Despite the fact that the movement of celestial bodies has been quite well studied and predicted, the next collision of a meteorite with the surface of the Earth is always a mysterious and surprising phenomenon for most of the planet's inhabitants.

HD Video of Meteor Shower

As soon as the meteorite exploded over Chelyabinsk, the so-called “hunters” immediately appeared. And all because you can make serious money selling “space stones”.

Introduction

In fact, no one yet knows more precisely about what happened. Some believe that the meteorite fell into Lake Chebarkul. But nothing was found in the lake, and therefore there is a version that the meteorite did not reach the ground, but “exploded” in the air (like the Tunguska meteorite).

The meteorite caused a lot of destruction to the city and surrounding area. The main problem is the winter cold, and many buildings have lost windows due to the blast wave. Hospitals are full of victims, but these are mostly mild and moderate cases (I personally don’t know about any deaths).

Business

In this world, the rarest things are usually the most expensive. That’s why meteorite fragments are very valuable. Typically, in every country there is a group of people who search for and sell “space rocks”. Some shards are so valuable that the price reaches up to $1,500 per gram!

But professional “hunters” are in no hurry to go to Chelyabinsk. And all because meteorites are different and their prices vary greatly. Most likely, a “cheap” meteorite exploded over Chelyabinsk. There is a possibility that it was actually a block of ice that burned up in the atmosphere.

Although even such a meteorite can be sold for ten dollars per gram. In addition, various meteorites fall to Earth quite often, many people simply do not notice it. And most of these meteorites are simple rock fragments that range in price from 10 to 50 cents per gram.

Expertise

Every day a person appears who claims to have found a meteorite. As a rule, in 99% of cases these are simple stones. Naturally, now in Chelyabinsk almost every tenth person offers to buy a “real” piece of meteorite from him.

Therefore, professional “hunters” conduct lengthy examinations to find out the composition of the meteorite, its value and authenticity. Large iron or stony-iron meteorites are considered the most valuable. Small fragments are usually not needed by anyone.

Is there no meteorite in Chelyabinsk?

Chelyabinsk search services stated that they did not find meteorite fragments either in the lake or anywhere else. Immediately people began to put forward various theories.

The most likely: the meteorite exploded and burned in the air. And if there are fragments left after it, they are of little value.

Conspiracy theory: the meteorite was already pulled out of the lake by someone smarter. Or maybe the municipal authorities also wanted to make money from the meteorite...

Alien theory: An alien ship with an alien on board crashed in Chelyabinsk. But the alien quickly disappeared, and therefore no one found anything. Just a Clark Kent story :)

Catastrophic theory: there is a small probability that it was not a meteorite, but an unsuccessful test of some kind of launch vehicle. But this is unlikely...

If you find a meteorite

If you find a meteorite, do not rush to look for buyers. First you need to determine the type of meteorite you have and its approximate price. The examination can be carried out in a special expert institution. Usually, large universities have their own laboratories at the Faculty of Geology or similar. You will have to spend your time and some money, but if the examination confirms your find, then your efforts will pay off.

It’s even better if you find people who professionally search for and sell meteorites. Then they will help you with expertise and sales. But you will have to give them a percentage of the sale.

If you don’t want to share with anyone, then look for buyers directly. Very often people try to sell meteorites through eBay. Attach photographs of your fragment, an expert opinion and other documents (if any) to your application. Usually, experienced meteorite buyers resell them. This means that they will try to reduce your price to the maximum. In addition, many simply will not believe you that you have a real meteorite. This means that the buyer may want to conduct their own additional due diligence.

conclusions

It is very difficult to make money on meteorites. After all, this is very hard work. The meteorite must first be found, then an examination must be carried out and a buyer must be found. It’s just that there are always problems with searches.
However, those lucky ones who were lucky enough to find a piece of an expensive meteorite will be provided for for life. But such people can be counted on one hand in the entire history of mankind.

P.S. Recently, small fragments of a meteorite were found. Hundreds of offers to buy the Chelyabinsk meteorite have already appeared on the Internet, although almost all of them are scams. According to our scientists working at the explosion site, they found more than 50 small fragments of the meteorite. The price for these fragments is still unknown, since the price also depends on demand. Russian experts value the fragments at $2,000 per gram. And American experts argue that the price is too high and that the real cost is about $100 per gram.
Interestingly, 4 years ago on the same day, a meteorite of the same type exploded over Texas. Pieces of the Texas meteorite cost from 20 to 100 dollars per gram.

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Meteor falling

Meteorite cut through the earth's atmosphere on February 15, 2013 over the city of Chelyabinsk. The approximate weight of the meteorite was later determined to be 10 thousand tons. At great speed it streaked across the sky over the city and split into many pieces. The townspeople not only heard a powerful explosion, but also felt the scorching heat of the blast wave. The windows of many houses and institutions were broken, power lines stopped functioning, and destruction affected the entire city. The suddenness of the appearance of the “space alien” is due to the fact that it fell from the direction of the sun and thus was not visible through telescopes. The largest parts of the meteorite fell into Lake Chebarkul and therefore no more harm was caused to human lives and the city. Undoubtedly, if the debris had fallen on the city, casualties would have been inevitable - they were flying at such speed.

Meteorite debris

The meteorite split into many pieces. The largest ones fell into the lake, while the smaller ones fell many kilometers around and inside the city. Since a state of emergency was immediately declared in the city, not only emergency situations teams were sent to the site, but also experts. The fragments subjected to analysis did not immediately reveal their secret. In addition, the smallest particles needed to be collected, and many people wanted to leave their finds as a souvenir, and therefore the process of collecting the smallest particles over such a large area became more complicated. Some parts were found near remote villages, and attempts to find meteorite fragments in the lake were unsuccessful, and on the contrary, they raised doubts whether there were meteorite fragments there - the divers' report was so pessimistic. However, chemical analysis was successfully carried out on the materials found.

Chemical composition of the meteorite

An analysis of meteorite fragments found near the village of Yemanzhelinka, carried out at the SB RAS, made it possible to determine the composition more accurately. The mineral composition was found to be close to that of other LL5 chondrites, such as Hautes Fagnes, Belgium and Salzwedel, Germany. These chondrites do not contain the glass that fills the large cracks in Chelyabinsk. In addition, the glass contains impurities of silicates and other substances, and its composition is similar to the melting crust, the thickness of which is about 1 mm. Ilmenite, also not found in other LL5 chondrites, was found in small quantities in the Chelyabinsk meteorite. The melting crust contains pentlandite (Fe,Ni)9S8, godlevskite (Ni,Fe)9S8, awaruite Ni2Fe-Ni3Fe, octium, iridium, platinum, hibbingite Fe22+(OH)3Cl and magnetite Fe2+Fe23+O4. The glass contains 10-15 µm globules of heazlewoodite and godlevskite composition, which appeared after crystallization of the Fe-Ni-S sulfide melt. In the unmelted parts of small fragments at the boundary between troilite and olivine, pentlandite is sometimes present, which, apparently, is the only copper concentrator. At the grain boundaries between olivine, orthopyroxene, and chromite, chlorapatite and merrillite grains with sizes of 100-200 μm were found. Chondrules are >1 mm in size and have a heterogeneous composition. Hibbingite Fe2(OH)3Cl was also discovered, which appears to be of cosmic origin, unlike iron, which can oxidize and chlorinate through long-term interaction with soil water, because it was found in the central part of the meteorite fragment. The melting crust contains wustite FeO with admixtures of Ni, Mg, and Co oxides according to energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

The result of the examination, naturally, is understandable only to professionals, but we present it with the desire to show how extraordinary the composition of the meteorite is.

Exploration of Lake Chebarkul

On October 16, exploration of the lake for the meteorite that disappeared in it was crowned with success. An operation was carried out to lift the largest meteorite fragment. Employees of Chelyabinsk State University participated in the recovery in order to identify the meteorite. The largest fragment recovered weighs approximately 570 kg, information is not accurate due to the fact that the scales broke when trying to weigh the fragment. During the ascent, the meteorite fragment was damaged and all that remained of it was one large piece with a diameter of about 80 cm and several small ones. In addition, 4 more fragments weighing from 900 grams to 5 kg were extracted from the lake; the fragments were handed over to scientists for study and further research. Traces of rust and dents, as well as characteristic melting, indicated that the fragments found belonged to a meteorite.

The meteorite still holds many mysteries, but has already begun to share its secrets.