Swedish court rules meteorite should stay with owner of property where it landed | Hacker News Reader

Swedish court rules meteorite should stay with owner of property where it landed

apnews.com

38 pointsElement_12 comments

If anyone could go in and steal a meteorite then you'd have a race to take it first when it falls, not something you would want to encourage. The property owner getting the meteorite therefore makes sense to maintain public order.

Yeah, that's the common sense interpretation.

You could also just say it is the property of the state

Which increases friction between the state and landowners

I'm not sure why it would, though I don't know much about local Swedish politics. In the UK, any historical hordes are considered property of the crown and not the property owner, and it doesn't seem to stop treasure hunters from trying to find them or cause conflict between the crown and the property owners.

> In the UK, any historical hordes are considered property of the crown and not the property owner, and it doesn't seem to stop treasure hunters from trying to find them or cause conflict between the crown and the property owners.

UK law gives the finder and landowner market price for the treasure between them though. That makes the economics rather different than what it would be if they got nothing.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996

You're right.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detectorists

> If anyone could go in and steal a meteorite

Nitpick about "steal" in your hypothetical scenario: taking the meteorite wouldn't be stealing until someone claims the meteorite or until the state comes up with an "XYZ party gets ownership" rule in the first place (XYZ being the owner of the landing location in this case.)

From my dead cold radioactive hands....

Would there be a difference of an old rock which fell thousands years ago vs. a rock which fell while the owner (or their ascendants) owned the land?

How high up from the ground does it need to fall to become the property owners property? If a ring with a diamond breaks and the diamond his the ground, it doesn't automatically become the property owner's.

Presumably 50 miles but I haven't read the law.

that ring is already someone elses property, i presume this law affects only "unclaimed" falling rocks i would assume

Reply on news.ycombinator.com