In villages and tile-roofed homes scattered across the vast expanse of Brazil’s countryside, rumors swirl: tales of lights in the sky, prices whispered over WhatsApp chats and collectors arriving from distant lands.
Since a meteorite fell near his home three years ago, Adriano Gomes, an evangelical Christian pastor living in tiny rural Jacilândia in the midwestern state of Goiás, recently found himself at the center of growing public curiosity.
“It came sounding like a plane,” Mr. Gomes said. “I was afraid of even touching it, not knowing what it was.”
Mr. Gomes knew the meteorite was valuable. Everyone had told him so — the hunters who came knocking, the online forums buzzing with speculation, even a collector from São Paulo who offered him cash.
In May, he was visited by Elizabeth Zucolotto and Elisa Rocha, both geologists and members of As Meteoriticas, an all-female team of scientists devoted to preserving and expanding Brazil’s national meteorite collection. The group, whose core members also include Amanda Tosi, an astrochemist, and Diana Paula Andrade, an astronomer, journeys to far-flung regions to recover fallen space rocks and educate local communities about their scientific significance.
Over coffee, Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Rocha examined the stony meteorite, which is slightly larger than a tennis ball and weighs about six ounces. The two geologists said it is a chondrite composed of ancient cosmic dust and tiny molten droplets. These formations are among the oldest solid materials in the solar system.
Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Rocha said that before the meeting, they were relieved to have found the meteorite, yet uneasy about whether Mr. Gomes would part with it for a price they could afford.
“We’re not trying to take anything from you,” Dr. Zucolotto said. “We’re trying to keep it here — in Brazil, in Goiás. For science, for everyone that needs it for research.”
In recent years, meteorites have ignited a quiet conflict in Brazil. Scientists seek to study them, collectors hope to purchase them and the often rural local residents who discover them find themselves caught in the middle.
Dr. Zucolotto, as curator of Brazil’s premier meteorite collection at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, said there was significant scientific value in meteorites for nations like Brazil, where resources for space research remain limited.
“It’s like deploying to the moon, Mars or beyond without needing to spend billions,” she said.
There are also educational benefits from preserving specimens for public use.
Before visiting Mr. Gomes to negotiate the price of the meteorite, Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Rocha stopped at a local school. Their mission: bring meteorites, and the cosmos, to classrooms as part of a government-funded science outreach campaign.
“We show them what a meteorite is,” Dr. Rocha said, “so that if one falls in their yard, they’ll know it’s not just money — it’s knowledge.”
The geologists displayed several specimens on three plastic tables. Dr. Rocha held a chondrite to a magnet and a boy flinched as the stone clicked forward. A girl gasped at another space rock fragment.
“It’s from an asteroid?” the girl asked. Dr. Rocha nodded. “Older than any fossil you’ve ever seen,” she said.
Before leaving, the scientists hosted a quiz, rewarding students with prizes of star- and heart-shaped amulets containing flecks of meteorite. One student proved to be a star pupil.
“What’s Earth’s core made of?” Dr. Rocha asked.
“Iron and nickel,” came a voice. Ianara Reis smiled before reaching timidly for her prize.
“How long does sunlight take to reach Earth?” Dr. Zucolotto asked.
“Eight minutes,” Ianara replied.
“What’s the place where most meteorites would probably fall?” Dr. Rocha asked.
“The ocean,” Ianara said.
Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Rocha handed her another star-shaped prize.
Unlike the United States, which regulates the ownership and collection of meteorites, Brazil lacks clear laws. Discoveries on private land default to the landowners, but public land remains a gray area where collectors and foreign buyers are often allowed to outbid scientists for these cosmic treasures.
The debate around meteorite ownership in Brazil reignited in August 2020. More than 175 pounds of meteorites fell from the sky over Santa Filomena in Pernambuco State, setting off a gold rush for space rocks.
One was an 84-pound chondrite. The ancient specimen was estimated to have formed 4.56 billion years ago and contained rare minerals like troilite. Residents swiftly gathered fragments that some sold for thousands of dollars, causing a frenzy that drew collectors from around the world. Scientists in the country raised the alarm over the loss of crucial research material.
Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Tosi flew in from Rio de Janeiro, more than a thousand miles away. They met a local bar owner who presented another specimen, a rare chondrite that was black with conical grooves and burnt-orange streaks. The stone had crashed through his roof days earlier.
“Most chondrites look the same — black, dull, nothing special,” Dr. Tosi said. But this one’s features, she said, made it “a masterpiece.”
Then the race escalated. Foreign speculators began arriving, offering cash and buying aggressively. Cars with plates from other Brazilian states pulled in. Groups of men — strangers to the hinterlands — knocked on doors to entice families with prices many had never imagined.
The town spiraled into a full-blown meteorite fever. People lined up in flip-flops in the town center, some with space rocks, some just trying their luck. Children and adults roamed the streets with homemade metal detectors built from broomsticks and magnets. Each night, the Meteoriticas saw new photos circulating online — piles of cash flaunted by rival buyers.
“It felt like a crude way to use wealth to win people over — pulling poor farmers away from the scientists,” Dr. Tosi said. She felt that the two were at a disadvantage because they are women, she added.
A collector from the United States bought the masterpiece rock from the bar owner. After negotiations that included the director of the National Museum in Rio, an agreement was reached to transfer the stone to the museum, but only if the Meteoriticas reimbursed the buyer for about $3,200.
The scientists scrambled. Dr. Zucolotto called her son in Rio and asked him to fly in with cash. She and Dr. Tosi then raced through back roads, stopping at one bank branch after another to withdraw the rest.
In the end, they managed to secure the cash and acquire the meteorite, which is now on display in Rio, with smaller fragments stored for study at the Federal University of Goiás.
After the scramble in Santa Filomena, Rodrigo Vesule, a space law researcher, and the Meteoriticas started a campaign to prevent further losses of Brazil’s scientific heritage. Working with the Brazilian Geological Society, Mr. Vesule is pushing for legislation that would classify meteorites as national scientific assets — regulating, but not prohibiting, their trade.
His proposal draws from mining laws, museum policies and international space treaties to craft enforceable, balanced rules. “It’s not about confiscation,” Mr. Vesule said, “but about creating legal certainty and promoting responsible stewardship.”
Not everyone is convinced. Collectors like André Moutinho worry that the law could have the effect of criminalizing past activities that were conducted in good faith. An I.T. engineer and amateur astronomer based in São Paulo, Mr. Moutinho has tracked every recent major meteorite event in Brazil. Like many collectors, he has been watching the unfolding legislation with unease.
“If we don’t acknowledge the role collectors played in finding, documenting and preserving these meteorites, we risk alienating a whole community,” he said. “I’m probably Brazil’s biggest collector, and I don’t feel my voice was heard.”
Back in Jacilândia, Dr. Zucolotto and Dr. Rocha reached the end of negotiations with Mr. Gomes over the meteorite that fell near his home three years earlier.
Dr. Zucolotto described the stone’s epic journey — its ancient origins, its scientific rarity and its value that, in her view, exceeds any price tag.
“I think it belongs with you,” Mr. Gomes said. “If you can match the last offer I got.”
The geologists scraped together the agreed-upon price — the equivalent of a bit more than $900 — and drove off with the fallen stone, relieved.
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