Catch a falling star - or at least part of one - in unusual meteorite auction

PIECES OF rock from outer space that crashed to earth at locations in Carlow and Limerick will go under the hammer in an unusual auction in Scotland next week.

The Edinburgh fine art auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull has announced the sale of part II of the world’s largest private collection of meteorites.

The collection was assembled over many years by Robert Elliott, an electrical engineer and well-known British “meteorite hunter” who travelled the world in recent decades seeking out examples.

He has reputedly sold meteorites to “celebrities” including the Israeli psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller, and pop-singer the late Michael Jackson.

Meteors – popularly known as falling stars – generally burn up when they enter the atmosphere but occasionally, some rocks remain intact and strike the Earth with great force. The rocks that hit the ground are known as meteorites and fragments are keenly sought by collectors.

Among lots in the auction is a fragment of stone weighing just 12.6g, cut from a meteorite that reputedly landed near the village of Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow, on November 28th, 1999.

Its pre-sale value has been estimated at £1,800-£2,400. It is described as a “slice” of a meteorite recovered after Mr Elliott “offered a cash reward in the local newspapers and radio stations”.

The precise location of the Leighlinbridge meteorite discovery, the name of the finder and the fate of the rest of the rock, believed to have weighed 271g in total, are unclear.

A second Irish lot in the auction is a tiny 0.71g sliver of stone from a meteorite that apparently fell in Co Limerick in the early 19th century. It is valued at £100-£150.

The catalogue quotes an eyewitness of the period, who on “Friday morning, the 10th of September 1813”, noticed the sky “darkened and very much disturbed, making a hissing noise” and then spotted a meteor which “fell to the earth, and sank into it more than a foot and a half, on the lands of Scagh, in the neighbourhood of Patrick’s Well, in the county of Limerick”.

A large stone weighing 7.7kg was subsequently dug up while it was “still warm and had a sulphurous smell”.

The auction is expected to attract interest from astronomers and a network of international collectors who specialise in this very niche field of collecting.

The most expensive lot in the sale is a large chunk – weighing 5.8kg – of the “Hambleton” meteorite found by Mr Elliott and his wife Irene in North Yorkshire in 2005. “Hambleton is by far the rarest and scientifically most interesting meteorite recovered within the United Kingdom to date, and the jewel in the crown of British meteorites,” the auctioneers say.

It is estimated at £12,000- £18,000.