On August 19, 2020, the hinterland of Pernambuco, more precisely Santa Filomena and its surroundings, served as the setting for an unusual phenomenon: the city was the target of a meteorite shower. There were hundreds of them, of varying sizes – from a few grams to one of almost 38 kilograms. The estimated mass that reached the ground was 80 kilograms in total. The local population regained the majority, but people came from all over the world. The day after the fall, meteorite traders and hunters were already seen in the region. There were people from the United States, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Argentina and several Brazilian states.
As it is a small town, with only one inn at a gas station, it was difficult to find accommodation. Among the hunters were four female scientists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) who hunt and analyze meteorites in their laboratories. The group is known as As Meteoríticas and is composed of myself, Diana Andrade, and Maria Elizabeth Zucoloto, professors and astronomers, as well as chemist Amanda Tosi and geographer Sara Nunes. We managed to recover a fragment of 1.9 kilograms, today in the National Museum of UFRJ, in addition to three smaller ones, used for study and demonstration in undergraduate and graduate classes.
Here’s a brief explanation: every year, more than 5,000 tons of extraterrestrial material reach our atmosphere, including meteorites, micrometeorites and cosmic dust. This material is believed to come mainly from asteroids, interplanetary dust, comet debris, the Moon or Mars. Although in general we can perceive them in the form of meteors, which is the luminous effect caused by the entry of these bodies into the atmosphere – often called shooting stars –, we hardly find their fragments.
Very small extraterrestrial particles disintegrate and do not reach the planet’s surface. There are also slightly larger fragments, which arrive in a subtle way, without attracting the attention of those in the surroundings. There are, however, much larger fragments that do not go unnoticed and are captured. When the object reaches the ground resisting all the weather along the way, it is called a meteorite.
Returning to Santa Filomena: because we are known in the meteoritic community and amateur astronomers, we were invited to stay at the home of a teacher in the city whose son, Luiz Fernando, followed us on social networks. At the time, Luiz Fernando was in high school; today he studies physics at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Sertão Pernambucano, in Petrolina, and dreams of becoming an astrophysicist.
Our group is a great supporter of girls and women in science, and that is why we started to promote meteorite hunting among the women of Santa Filomena. We teach children and women how to use a broomstick and a magnet to pick up “extraterrestrials” and identify them. Some families sold the fragments found, and thus fulfilled dreams, from buying a bicycle to paying for the entire cancer treatment.
For As Meteoríticas, the Santa Filomena event was sensational: in addition to the abundant rain and the engagement of residents and interaction with children, it was the first time that we had encountered meteorites in groups. Although we already worked together in the laboratories, and some had already participated in meteorite hunts, we only consolidated as a group in 2017 – since then, only two meteorites had fallen. In neither case were we able to recover fragments in the field. The hunt started at six in the morning and didn’t end until the sun went down. At the beginning of the night, we returned to the house that faced the Igreja Matriz square, the central point of the city, and it was time for interaction with the residents, when we could talk about the importance of meteorites and astronomy in general.
For those who find fragments, we emphasize the importance of contacting researchers before commercializing them. There are traders who devalue the material and create pressure for the person to sell it at a price well below the real value.
As I’ve already told here, a short time ago a Martian meteorite fell in Socorro, also in Pernambuco, and was taken to the United States without Brazilian researchers having the opportunity to study it. It is believed that that meteorite was sold for approximately 20 thousand reais, having been resold for 800 thousand dollars. If the person who found this meteorite had shown it to one of us, or any expert rock researcher, the piece would not have been sold at a bargain price. We must avoid that the same happens with other fragments that the heavens present to us in the future.
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Diana Andrade is a researcher at the Laboratory of Spatial Material Analysis (LAMEsp) at the Valongo Observatory/UFRJ.
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