During the Geology Day at the Natural History Museum in Stockholm, the space stone is exhibited and researchers are on site to answer questions about the rare find.
It was on November 7, 2020, that a large bolide entered the atmosphere with a crash and lit up the sky before hitting near the village of Ådalen outside Enköping. It was the first certain meteorite impact in Sweden in over 60 years and meteorite hunters from all over the country gathered to search for the remains.
It was finally the geologists Anders Zetterqvist and Andreas Forsberg who found the 14 kilo heavy meteorite stone and handed it over to the Natural History Museum for storage while waiting for a decision in the ownership issue. The landowner, Count Johan Benzelstierna von Engeström, believed that the stone belonged to him since it had hit his property and the matter became a legal dispute.
Unique case
The geologists won over the landowner in the district court but lost in the court of appeal, which considered the meteorite to be real property and that the landowner had the right to it.
The case is, however, unique and the legislation did not provide any clear guidance. You are not allowed to take stones from someone else's land according to the penal code, but for ancient finds there is special legislation. Meteorites are not mentioned at all.
The Supreme Court decided to take up the case and in August the judgment came: the stone is movable property and thus belongs to the finders.
High value
The Natural History Museum is now in dialogue with the owners about the possibility of getting to keep the iron meteorite – which at the time of discovery was in very good condition – in order to be able to research it and display it.
"It has a high scientific value and can give researchers clues, among other things, about how the Earth's core was formed and about the early development of the solar system," the museum writes in a press release.
