The Civil Guard has managed to recover a meteorite that disappeared of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN) 60 years ago. A neighbor of the Gipuzkoan town of Hernani had put it up for sale on an auction web portal for a value of 27,500 euros.
The history of this piece of rock starts on the Day of the Holy Innocents in 1947, when the residents of Reliegos, in León, woke up with a huge roar. They thought a plane had fallen but it had been a meteorite that they delivered to the MNCN to be studied and exposed.
From the showcase it disappeared 60 years ago. Now, the police intervention began at the behest of the MNCN, after the curator of the Geology collection, Aurelio Nieto, discovered that the rock had been put up for sale on an internet auction portal.
The Bid ended on October 27 and its starting price was 27,500 euros. Nieto’s notice opened a police operation that led investigators to the Guipuzcoan town of Hernani, where the Civil Guard recovered the fragment.
However, the investigation remains open because, at the time of its disappearance more than 50 years ago, the meteorite was guarded by the MNCN researcher Laborde Welinde, who died in 1993.
What happened to the car from 1993 to today, “continues to be investigated”, has advanced the head of Seprona, Captain Marcos Santos. At a press conference, General José Antonio Berrocal Anaya of the Civil Guard, who has delivered the meteorite to the museum, stressed that protecting and preserving Spain’s heritage is “one of the most gratifying tasks” of the body, while Zardoya has grateful “this good birthday present “in the 250th anniversary of the Museum that is celebrated this year.
Meteorite details
The car, listed as a condrito L (non-metallic), it is made up of chondrites or spheres of materials and its study “provides important keys to understanding the origin of the solar system and the planets, the composition of the earth’s core and the origin of life,” Nieto stressed.
When the meteorite fell it was cut into several pieces for study: some were sent to the MNCN and others to the museums of natural history of Washington and New York.
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