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Anna Marie Brennan, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Waikato

Earth is bombarded with rocks from space – but who gets to keep these ultimate antiques?

Shutterstock/KV4000

Every day, about 48.5 tonnes of space rock hurtle towards Earth. Meteorites that fall into the ocean are never recovered. But the ones that crash on land can spark debates about legal ownership.

Globally, meteorite hunting has become a lucrative business, with chunks of alien rock traded online and shipped between countries.

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