It Came From Outer Space and We Don't Care, Say Museums

A home was yesterday being sought for two fragments of rock from outer space which fell to earth in Spain two weeks ago and which museums there have turned down.

The meteor fragments were found by a Spanish journalist, Abel Tarilonte, after a flaming ball of rock was seen shooting across the skies of northern and central Spain.

Villagers in the mountains of northern Spain reported hearing and feeling explosions after the bright white fireball passed overhead on January 4. But a search by police failed to find any remnants of the meteorite.

Scientists said it had probably been destroyed and that the chances of finding any part of it were so slim that it was not worth trying.

Then Mr Tarilonte came across two lumps of blackened rock lying on a country track in the mountains in the northern province of Palencia.

The rocks, weighing just 41 grams (1.4oz) and 22 grams, were tested by a Spanish laboratory, which confirmed they were from the meteor.

But now Mr Tarilonte cannot find a museum or university science department in Spain prepared to give them a home where they can be properly examined, El Mundo reported yesterday.

"No one from any public body has shown the least interest in the find or in its scientific implications. This is despite the fact that these are the only meteor remains to have been found in Spain for six decades," he complained.

Mr Tarilonte has now offered to send them to the United States - or anywhere else that might be interested in finding out more about them. However, he did not say whether he was prepared to give them away or just lend them.