Everyone has a weird story to tell. In Marcia Campos Muñoz’s tall tale, in the sky above her village, a space rock the size of a washing machine splits up and some fragments of that rock fall in through her roof. There are many, and they are worth more than gold.
She lives in a small house in Aguas Zarcas, a village carved out of Costa Rica’s tropical rainforest. The dull stones that lay on her floor were were practically alive, part of a meteorite at least 4.5 billion years old. Within one week a gold rush began on her doorstep, with collectors from Russia, Germany, Belgium, and the United States flying in to set up base, along with media, scientists, and geochemists. (1)
Special Shards From Unusual Meteorite
Space rocks that fall to Earth are called meteorites and should not be confused with meteors, which burn up in the planet’s atmosphere as “shooting stars”. In space, they are known as meteoroids and are fragments of much larger asteroids and comets. (3) These falling ‘stones’ in Marcia’s story, named Aguas Zarcas (after the village), belong to a rare class of meteorites, rich in complex organic molecules. Scientists believe they gave life a nudge when they slammed into barren earth 4.5 billion years ago.
On April 23, 2019, around 9 pm, she had gone outside, to check why her dogs were barking. She ducked back inside, just seconds before a blast on the back terrace rattled the house to its foundations. Her father, brother, and her son, who found a grapefruit-sized hole in the corrugated roof and a smashed-up plastic table. On the floor, bits of stone, warm, and black as tar, lay there.
Her phone was busy with messages from friends telling of flaming fireballs and rocks on farms and fields raining down nearby. She uploaded her pictures to social media, and a local journalist visited the house. Within hours Facebook Live videos were streamed. (2)
It didn’t take long for worldwide dealers to recognize the Aguas Zarcas fragments — they belong to a rare class called carbonaceous chondrites, which form in the small hours of the solar system’s emergence, typically packed with carbon. This particular space rock contains complex carbon compounds, including amino acids (which join to form proteins and DNA) and perhaps other, even more, complex building blocks of life. Already, there’s evidence of amino acids in these Aguas Zarcas fragments not found elsewhere on Earth. (1)
On top of this, the fragments resembled a legendary carbonaceous chondrite that exploded in 1969 over Murchison, an Australian cattle town. To date, approximately 100 distinct amino acids have been recognized by scientists, many used on Earth by animals and many others non-existent in known life. Hundreds of more, but not yet identified, amino acids have been hypothesized, inferred but not yet identified with Murchison.
Murchison also contained nucleobases, the building blocks of genetic molecules such as RNA, and in November 2019, researchers found a major component of RNA’s backbone: the sugar molecule ribose. This half-century parade of discoveries jump-started the now-flourishing field of astrobiology. “We’re not detecting life itself, but the components are all there,” says Daniel Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “I wouldn’t have a job without Murchison.” (2)
The 30 kilograms of Aguas Zarcas primordial leftovers carry a similar promise, if not better than Murchison. 50 years fresher, these new pieces allow scientists to apply modern techniques to conserve and test what amounts to fragile lumps of indescribably old clay.
If I had to start a new museum collection for meteorites, and I could only select two, I would choose Murchison and Aguas Zarcas,” says Philipp Heck, who curates the meteorite collection at Chicago’s Field Museum. “If I could choose only one, I would choose Aguas Zarcas.” (2)
Blazing Fireballs Cause Blazing News
It could be said the secrets of the Universe may be contained within Aguas Zarcas. How it is stored is imperative, and who gets a chunk, and at what price makes blazing news.
It’s already attracted buyers from all over the world, offering as much as $400 (£305) per gram. (1)
Little of Aguas Zarcas remains in Aguas Zarca, or even in Costa Rica. The University of Costa Rica is now home to a few fragments, each weighing a few tenths of a gram. San José’s National Museum has more.
Just as the hole in her roof remains, Campos Muñoz is still on a holdout. She still has the chunk that fell through her roof, which she hopes will end up in an exhibition. She wants more for it—she won’t say exactly how much—than dealers have offered.
She stays in touch with Costa Rican scientists to follow their research and reads every paper they send her way. Neighbors think she will be a millionaire.
To speak of the stardust with fervor Marcia says “I feel very proud that such an important event for history and science took place in my country and in my house.”
