FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Paul S]

This question crossed my mind when I read somewhere (no idea where it was) that meteorites should not belong in a personall collection but should be studied and analysed by institutes, so that we can learn more about them. Due to their rarety, I can imagine it could be a problem for the researchers that so many specimen end up in personal collections.

What are your opinions about this matter? Should meteorites be studied by researchers instead of collected by us?

[Antonio Alcaide]

My point of view is that both things should be possible. Searchers and collectors do exactly the same with very rare minerals. The origin of the stuff -terrestrial or not- doesn't matter.

Regards

[Tobi]

I agree with Antonio: Meteorites, like minerals, should both be available for private collectors and for science. Of course extraordinary meteorites are best placed in a public collection, where researches can be done and where nevertheless as many people as possible can see them.

Additional info to that topic: The Mineralogical Museum here in Marburg shows the Treysa Meteorit, the largest meteorite that ever went down over Germany whose impact (in 1916) was observed. This 40 cm large and over 60 kg heavy iron/nickel meteor even made it into the Guinness Book because of that fact. A picture of it from the official site:
https://www.uni-marburg.de/fb19/minmus/ausstellungen/samm/meteorit
(link normalized by FMF)

But in general, meteorites should be allowed to be added to private collections and not reserved for science.

Cheers!

[Carles Millan]

[keldjarn]

The total number of meteorites found and thus potentially available for scientific research will be much larger when there is also a market for such objects. Such quaestions are being raised from time to time also concerning exceptional and rare mineral specimens. The public funding for natural science museums and research is so limited that without the private collectors very few exceptional meteorites or mineral specimens would be available for research or preserved for posterity. But it is important collectors appreciate the scientific value of specimens in their collection and make sure that they become available for proper study. Hopefully many will also be donated or sold to museums in the future.

[Gail]

I can see that Museums would be deluged with meteorites and no place to store them if the private sector didn't buy them. Storage is one of the biggest problems facing many museums.

[Scott LaBorde]

The same could easily be said for artifacts, yet how many millions of artifacts are there in private collections? I believe that if some scientist said "meteorites do not belong in collections", then that scientist is basically saying he'd rather all meteorites belong in his collection, or scientific community's collection for the purpose of study. Although there may be a different reason behind collecting it does not change the basic fact that they would rather have them in their collection as opposed to a mineral collector or anyone else not able to understand all the scientific nuances of space rocks. So I guess it boils down to whether scientific study of a meteorite trumps the privilege of being able to admire it in a collection -- a debate I would rather not get into.

I don't beleive that these meteorites that are sitting in collections are lost to science anyway. They may be passed down, traded, bought and sold, but they are not being lost, thrown away, or destroyed. It might be several generations before a scientist might have the chance to study a meteorite in a particular collection, and perhaps never. But they will always be around and with patience perhaps studied one day. Is it stifling the progress of science? Well that's another debate.

[Paul S]

But aren't meteorites becoming more and more popular? Dealers are collecting them at a much faster rate than that they fall from the skies and they even cut them into smaller pieces as to earn more money.

It is my opinion that everyone should be able to collect meteorites, without a doubt. But I'm a bit worried about the future and the possibilities to research them.

[Carles Millan]

[alfredo]

There are people who want ALL meteorites (and fossils, and ancient artifacts) to be reserved for scientists. These people would, if they could, prohibit private collections. But, as others have pointed out above, there are not enough scientists, laboratories or storage space for the huge number found each year. Many meteorites and fossils would just be destroyed by weathering if collectors didn´t pick them up and take them home.

[Screenname]

Maybe this is an old topic but I wanted to add something to it. As for meteors, fossils, even artifacts I guess it really depends on the rarity. I know we are talking morals here, if someone has something rare and special should it be shared with the world. If it belongs to that person is up to them to decide but if I had something very rare and special I would want to share it with the world, such as on here the guy who found the Okie Dokie diamond or an episode of history detectives, a man found a badge from a revolutionary war ammo bag, very rare and he said he was going to donate it to let the whole world see it. But meteors, unless a special one and fossils unless something special are pretty common and can be found in specialty stores and auctions. Also there are emotional attachments sometimes. Such as a few other episodes of history detectives where someone owns something rare of real important historic importance but also is something from their family, such as something of their relatives from an old war. The badge was found in a river but if that man had it passed down in his family and belonged to a great great great, and so on grandfather I am sure he would have kept it. This mainly a question of whether or not the owner wants to show it off or keep to themselves I don't think there is a real answer to this question but morally yes some things do belong in museums, what if someone had the hope diamond or declaration of independence in their own private collection and no one got to see it?

[kywawa]

[alfredo]

In future, astronauts will bring back tons of space rocks, from well-documented localities, and then all our meteorites found on Earth, coming from unknown celestial bodies, and contaminated by Earth weathering, will be scientifically relatively worthless. This mania for the high value of meteorites will be a relatively short-lived phenomenon, so I won't worry about it.