The Philippine Online Chronicles

Meteorite manna from heaven has become the cause of an earthly squabble over who gets to keep it – the physician tenants or the landowners.

A meteorite circling from Mars to Jupiter and back again finally hurtled into the Williamsburg Square Family Practice doctor’s office in Lorton, Virginia, just barely missing Marc Gallini, the doctor who was conducting a checkup at that time. In high spirits because of his second shot at life, he and fellow doctor Frank Ciampi decided to donate the meteorite to the Smithsonian Institution, which offered them USD5000 for the rock as a show of appreciation. This act of benevolence was shortlived, however, as the medical office landlord, Erol Mutlu, staked his claim on the much sought-after space element – and the law may just be on his side.

Gallini stated that he was given the go signal by Erol Mutlu to turn over the rock to the Smithsonian, but after a week, per advice of his cousin, Deniz Mutlu Erol e-mailed the doctors that he had changed his mind and would be pulling out the stone from the museum. Gallini and Ciampi immediately sent word to the Smithsonian to keep the stone until all issues had been settled.

The hype appears to have weakened the resolve of the Mutlus, who are letting the Smithsonian safeguard the Lorton meteorite until they are able to straighten out their legal strategy. The doctors have also asked for legal advice, while the Smithsonian refuses to comment on the matter.

Scientific relevance

Meteorites either come from the moon or the asteroid belt, and they are not available for private ownership unless they have been obtained from Africa or Oman, or awarded to an individual or another government by the government that funded the space exploration/earth expedition.

Meteorites, whether from the moon or the asteroid belt, would provide clues as to the geological processes present in that particular region. In the case of lunar meteorites, these fragments break away from the moon’s surface as a result of collisions with other meteors. Collected meteorites have not yet been linked to a certain crater with a hundred percent certainty, but the closest that the astronomers have come was with Sayh al Uhaymir 169 which is thought to have come from the Lalande crater on the near side of the moon.

Tim McCoy, a Smithsonian institute mineral sciences curator, informs us that inside the Lorton meteorite are tiny shards of metal and rock fragments containing substances that would give us more clues to the birth of the solar system. He adds that the rock will enable the scientists to trace what the universe was like 4.6 billion years ago.

Market value

The Luna 16 mission by the Soviet Union was able to gather three lunar rocks as small as seeds; these were sold in 1993 for USD442,500.

Treasure hunt

For a small piece of lunar rock, some collectors would go to any lengths --- even intercept packages at the post office. NASA spokesperson Eileen Hawley said that the Apollo 12 lunar rock, weighing about 13 grams, was supposed to have been sent to a University of California researcher way back in 1970; unfortunately, bandits who swiped it on its way to the laboratory had greater, more lucrative plans for the moon fragment.

After 25 years, NASA finally got a lead from a retired Postal Investigative Service agent in New York, who looked at the articles to be sold at an auction and suggested an item’s possible connection with the rock stolen 25 years ago.

The Phillips auction catalogue described the dimensions of the lunar rock, which it claimed had been given to a deceased White-Westinghouse executive, a Mr. Trochelmann who was a close friend of an astronaut from the Apollo 12 mission. It further stated that the rock was given as a token of appreciation for Trochelmann’s nutritional engineering efforts which benefited the program. Trochelmann’s sons, Brian and Ron, were unreachable at the time the rocks were put up for auction.

Meteorite ownership law

“All lunar samples collected during the Apollo missions are the property of the United States,” asserts Hawley.

She added that all the rocks are photographed, classified, and catalogued before being transferred to other laboratories. As the Apollo 12 lunar rock that was to be auctioned fit the overall description of the one that was stolen a few decades back, NASA and the FBI were prompted to look into the matter.

The property ownership law in the USA, which originated from British law as well as laws in many Western European countries, states that meteorites belong to the landowners.

In the 1900s, a 15-ton meteorite was awarded to the landowner, not the finder, by the Oregon Supreme Court, showing how strictly this law is being followed.

In the Philippines, more or less, we follow the laws that govern meteorite ownership in the USA, since hidden treasure (which includes precious objects such as an earthbound meteorite) is considered property of the owner of the land, or of any other type of property where the treasure is found. However, it is made clear that if the tenant is the one who found the treasure, he or she gets to own half of that treasure (or in our case, space rock).

Photo: “meteorite” by Anthony Disbrow, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved