“Valencia” Meteorite. Geology Collection of M[UV]HN.
Photo: Miguel Lorenzo
It is one of the most emblematic Museum’s pieces. Officially, it was baptized as "Valencia" in 1998 (SAO / NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)), it has a weight of 33.5 kg, dimensions 37 x 24.5 x 19.5 cm and an estimated age of 4,600 million of years. Geochemically, "Valencia" is classified as a chondrite type H5. Despite being one of the few meteorites in Spain authenticated in the last 100 years, historical documents, that could have shed light on the exact location and date of its fall, were destroyed during a fire on May 1932, a fire that affected the Valencia University historical building.
The study of this type of meteorites provides important keys to understand the origin and the age of the Solar System, the synthesis of organic compounds, the origin of life or the presence of water in the rest of the Solar system Planets.
