00:00Meteorites that are falling from space are considered treasures like the two meteorites that fell in the Philippines last year but were released to our country.
00:20Fortunately, this week, these were returned.
00:26Breaking news all over the world!
00:29It was discovered that there is an asteroid that is the size of a house that could hit our planet in 2032.
00:39This is the Asteroid 2024-YR4, which is estimated to be 100 to 130 feet in size.
00:48There are reports that it has a similar impact to a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere.
00:54The big question now is where can it hit?
00:59Will the Philippines be affected?
01:02If possible, this is not the first time that an asteroid has fallen in our country.
01:08In fact, there are 7 confirmed meteorites that have entered our continent.
01:14The Pampanga meteorite fell in 1859 in the city of Mexico, Pampanga.
01:21The Paitan meteorite fell in Ilocos Sur in 1910.
01:25The Calivo meteorite fell in Aklan in 1916.
01:29The Pantar meteorite fell in Lanao del Norte in 1938.
01:34The Bondoc meteorite fell in Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province in 1956.
01:44The Orconuma meteorite fell in Oriental Mindoro in 2011.
01:49And the last on the list is the Pongo meteorite that fell in Cagayan Valley in 2022.
01:57These meteorites went to different parts of the world.
02:02Some were displayed in museums, while some were hidden by private collectors.
02:08These stones are from the wide range of hot items.
02:12It also depends on the scientific value or if it has a history.
02:16There are meteorites that come from the moon.
02:17Sometimes, it can reach from 1,000 to even 30,000 dollars per gram.
02:2230,000 is about 1.5 million pesos per gram.
02:25More than the value of this.
02:27But in the past few months,
02:29there was a group that was able to find the 2 meteorites that fell in the Philippines.
02:36They went back to the country to gather the 7 Philippine meteorites.
02:43Will they succeed?
02:47A lot of things were found in these stones,
02:51including the geologist and geoscientist Christian,
02:55who has a fragment or piece of 4 of the 7 Philippine meteorites.
03:01As part of his collection is the fragment of the Orconuma meteorite.
03:06This is what 3 farmers saw in Oriental Mindoro.
03:10It is remembered that in 2019,
03:12the first to be found here in KMJS were the farmers Erick, Fredo, and Edgar,
03:18who picked up stones from a vacant lot in the Orconuma barangay in Bungabong, Oriental Mindoro in 2011.
03:26They believed it was a meteorite.
03:29They were the first to sell the stones to a meteorite collector from America,
03:35John Higgins, for only 580,000 pesos.
03:39What we received was only 580,000 pesos.
03:42Until they were told that the stones they picked up were already in the meteoritic bulletin database
03:49of the international organization, the Meteoritic Society.
03:54The stones were confirmed to be meteorites.
03:57But they were surprised at its true value.
04:01It is worth 8 million.
04:03We really wasted it.
04:06These stones are from the oldest and largest of the seven Philippine meteorites,
04:13the Bondoc meteorite.
04:15Based on a study around 2.5 million years ago,
04:18it fell here in the Philippines.
04:20There were no people here in the Philippines at that time.
04:22It was only discovered in 1956.
04:24So when it was discovered, it was already vast.
04:27Christian also holds pieces of Pantar meteorite
04:31that fell and were picked up in Pantar, Lanao del Norte.
04:35This is part of a small bottle of meteorite that fell into the mountains.
04:40Our team went to Pantar, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao.
04:44My father, his father told him
04:47that one day, the sky here in Pantar burst.
04:50They didn't know what a meteor was.
04:52So they thought the sky burst.
04:55We are now here in a possible place where Pantar meteorite fell.
04:59When the Pantar meteor fell, it entered this place.
05:02The people were afraid.
05:04Where did that light come from with the rocks?
05:08Christian also holds a piece of the last documented meteorite,
05:12the Ponggong meteorite.
05:14I acquired this 13-gram specimen myself
05:17from a relative of the finder.
05:19It was also registered
05:21in the National Commission for Culture and the Arts
05:24as the first Philippine meteorite
05:27that is considered a cultural property.
05:30Christian's collection of meteorites
05:32is stored in container boxes.
05:34When there is more than 70% humidity in the room temperature,
05:38we close the container box
05:41to reduce the chance of the meteorite to break.
05:45But Christian still has three specimens of Philippine meteorites.
05:50He is still looking for them.
05:52Until now, one of these is the Calivum meteorite,
05:57which is estimated to weigh 2.4 kilos.
06:00And the Pampanga meteorite
06:02that fell in 1859,
06:04which was discovered in Jario.
06:07We got the story from an old Spanish newspaper.
06:11I think the title is Ilustracion Filipina.
06:14In 1859, the entire Pampanga fell.
06:17There was a very loud sound.
06:19At the back of the Church of St. Monica,
06:22the meteorite fell.
06:24The meteorite that was recovered back then.
06:27That meteorite was awarded in Manila.
06:30It was given to the Governor General.
06:32From there, it was sent to Madrid.
06:34The Paitan meteorite,
06:36which is said to have fallen in the town of San Juan,
06:39in Ilocos Sur, in 1910.
06:42In 1910, the Healy's Comet appeared.
06:45They had a suspect that this stone
06:47was possibly from this comet.
06:50In the laboratory's investigation,
06:52it was proven that it wasn't from a comet
06:54if it wasn't from an asteroid.
06:57Our team went there.
07:17We have a barangay of 32 here in San Juan.
07:21But we don't have a record of having a barangay here.
07:24The search for the three missing Philippine meteorites
07:29is now the mission of Christian, Melvin, Allen, Abraham, and Hiro,
07:34who are based in Switzerland.
07:36The Philippine Meteorite Repatriation Team.
07:40In our team, we have different professions.
07:43But we have one commonality.
07:45This is our passion for meteorites.
07:47I've been collecting meteorites for 5 to 8 years.
07:51I started collecting in 2005.
07:55Until 2023, Christian's team
07:58had a lead in the possible origin of the Paitan meteorite
08:02that fell in Ilocos Sur in 1910.
08:05We learned that a German collector and scientist
08:09had a piece of the Paitan meteorite.
08:12So we contacted this German collector.
08:15We negotiated to get the Paitan meteorite back.
08:19We also learned that it had a Pampanga meteorite specimen.
08:23The group also agreed that these were the meteorites they were looking for.
08:28We needed to go deeper,
08:30not only in the physical test, but also in the laboratory analysis.
08:34But the negotiation to get the Paitan and Pampanga meteorites back
08:40became a challenge.
08:42After a year, we talked to this German collector
08:46because he didn't want to let go.
08:48The German collector really wanted us to go personally.
08:53But it wasn't ideal for the four of us to go to Germany.
08:58So we asked our friends abroad
09:02to represent us in getting these two meteorite specimens.
09:07After several months of negotiations,
09:10in December, the Paitan and Pampanga meteorites
09:19were finally returned to the Philippines.
09:23We waited for around 39 years to get the Paitan meteorite back
09:27and 165 years for the Pampanga meteorite.
09:31And in a rare opportunity,
09:33the Pampanga and Paitan meteorites
09:36were joined by four other Philippine meteorite specimens
09:40just this Saturday.
09:413, 2, 1
09:46They were shown to the public
09:48at a mall in Pasig City.
09:52The Paitan and Pampanga meteorite specimens were shown to the public
09:56at a mall in Pasig City.
09:58The Paitan and Pampanga meteorite specimens were shown to the public
10:01at a mall in Pasig City.
10:03We allowed people to hold them
10:06because they won't be used for research.
10:09They won't be contaminated.
10:11The experience impacts people.
10:14I was completely amazed
10:16since it was the first time I held a meteorite.
10:21Among those who went to the exhibit,
10:24was the Santa Monica Parish and Tourism Office of Mexico-Pampanga
10:29where it is said that the Pampanga meteorite fell.
10:33I am very proud because our country is known to the international community
10:38in the field of science.
10:41We will coordinate with them.
10:42There is an exhibit in Mexico.
10:44For the longest time,
10:45more than 100 years,
10:46we don't have specimens of this.
10:48Now, even ordinary Filipinos who are interested in meteorites
10:51have a chance to see this in the Philippines.
10:54This is a good opportunity to revisit the progress of scientific development
10:59in the whole country.
11:00We have a plan to donate to the National Museum
11:03because the National Museum is free access.
11:05So, if there is an exhibit, more people will be able to see it.
11:09Meanwhile, the information on the existence of the 7th missing Philippine meteorite,
11:15the Calivum meteorite,
11:17which was published in a magazine in 1916,
11:20is still missing.
11:22The group is still looking for the names,
11:24the leads,
11:25where our investigation will go.
11:29Let's go back to the reported asteroid
11:32that will hit our planet in 2032.
11:35Do we have anything to worry about?
11:38The probability that this asteroid will land
11:46is around 3%.
11:47Even though there is a possibility,
11:49there is no need to be alarmed
11:50because the chance that it will hit is really small.
11:54There are experts who estimate where it is,
11:56what they call the risk corridor,
11:58where this asteroid can impact.
12:02For now, the Philippines is not there.
12:05Only a few things that are in the public eye
12:08can also be considered
12:11The stones in the vastness of the earth
12:15are making history.
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