translated from Spanish: Millionaire meteorite, lost among debris in Brazil

on the morning of September 3, the images of the flames that destroyed the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil toured the world.
From the main entrance of the historic Palace, in the middle of the smoke, it was visible to the silhouette of the Bendegó, the largest and most famous Brazilian meteorite, composed of more than 5,000 kilograms of iron and nickel.
However, another space rock much more discreet and less popular, but more valuable, still missing under the rubble of the Museum.
It’s the Angra dos Reis who has one 76,000 times lower than that of the Bendegó mass.
With its about 4 cm wide and weighs just 70 grams, its estimated value revolves around 3 million reals (US$ 750,000, approximately).
It is the most valuable rock in the collection of more than 400 meteorites of the Brazilian National Museum.
EPAEl National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, caught fire at the beginning of September.” “You should have burned, damaged a little, but he resisted, I have no doubt”, says astronomer María Elizabeth Zucolotto, curator of the Department of meteorites of the National Museum of Brazil.
Remember that rock survived warmer temperatures when it flowed through the Earth’s atmosphere. Because of its relevance, the Angra dos Reis was hiding in the room of astronomers and was not on display to the public.
Since the fire, Zucolotto can not enter the building, and wants to do it before they start the repair work.
“Is there the risk of theft? It exists. I know that in the room where is you cannot enter because the top floor collapsed. But when they come to shore up the walls, someone can be a memory, or even discard it believing it to be a piece of the building,”says curator to Guilherme Castellar, journalist for BBC Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
Rock BBC meteorite was in the room of the Professor and astronomer Maria Elizabeth Zucolotto.El Angra dos Reis that name because it was sighted and recovered in that city in the South of the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1869.
Who sees it, cannot imagine being in front of a special mineral. The rock is deformed, with irregular and porous surface.
This Meteor was the first of a class of spatial stones until today considered very rare.
For more than one century, it was the only copy of which had record. At the end of the 1990s, other rocks came to be discovered or reclassified as angritos, nomenclature given in reference to the Angra dos Reis.
According to the World Meteorological Society, there are only 28 known in the world.
AFPEl Bendegó is the largest and most famous Brazilian meteorite, composed of more than 5,000 kilograms of iron and nickel. The angritos are composed of minerals forged only in soaring temperatures of the planets core. They are the oldest igneous or magmatic rocks that are known, formed when the solar system was still a cloud of gas and dust.
He is estimated that the meteorite from the National Museum have 4,560 million years. For geologists and astronomers, little rock is a book filled with clues about the origin of the Sun and the planets.
No theft is the first time that the curator of the National Museum’s meteorology Sector fears for the theft of the rock. In 1997, two traders of U.S. meteorite almost stole the Angra dos Reis.
“It wouldn’t be difficult to sell the Angra for a large sum. At that time it was worth much more because it was unique, but then other two meteorites found in Antarctica 20 years earlier were reclassified as angritos”, has Zucolotto.
Bbccientificos study meteorites to understand the Sun and planets. After 21 years of this attempted robbery, the guardian of the Angra dos Reis departs daily distraught from his house to the Museum in the hope to be able to enter the Palace in ruins.
The fire Sunday, it could just not rescue him. “When firefighters freed the access, it was late, the fire was already in the top floor”, recalls. “And I felt fear, I thought in my life and gave up. Five minutes later, everything collapsed”. However, he managed to save 30 33 meteorites that were on display.
Until recently, Elizabeth was the only one who knew where he was hiding the Angra dos Reis. “I know where is, I know the position of the Cabinet, but have to remove the debris that fell over.”
One day, very distraught, he stopped opposite the Museum. He believed that he had a heart attack. There he decided to reveal the location of the treasure to others. Now, they and the rubble of the Palace are the guardians of the Angra dos Reyes.
ReutersEl National Museum was founded by in 1818. 

Original source in Spanish