Just as Norwegians were gearing up for their smashing performance in the Winter Olympics, another meteorite was found to have smashed into a house in Oslo’s Korsvoll district. The sensational event seemed to get lost amidst all the Olympic hype.
Newspaper Dagbladet picked up the story, though, 12 days after the meteorite was discovered by homeowner Steinar Engh on February 6. The 69-year-old Engh said he initially thought the meteorite was just part of some stones hurled onto the roof of his terrace by some blasting that had been going on in connection with a construction project in his neighbourhood.
Dagbladet reported that the damage done by the “stones” Engh found on his roof was fixed during the course of the day but then Engh began to wonder where they really came from. Remembering recent reports of meteorites hitting homes and even a holiday cottage in Oslo, he contacted a neighbour who works at the Museum of Natural History in Oslo. His colleagues confirmed it was another meteorite that hit Engh’s home.
It cracked upon contact with Engh’s terrace roof, splitting up into one large piece, one smaller piece and several fragments. Together they weighed 2.8 kilos (must over six pounds) and are thus believed to comprise the fourth-largest single meteorite found in Norway.
The meteorite is valued at tens of thousands of kroner, but Engh said he has no plans to sell it. “I’m going to take good care of it,” he told Dagbladet. “It will be registered and examined at the university, and then it will lie in a safe and dry place.”
newsinenglish.no staff
