6 out of 7 PH meteorites now at National Museum

The National Museum of the Philippines now has pieces of six of the seven Philippine meteorites.

On August 5, the Pampanga, Paitan, and Ponggo meteorites were officially added to the National Reference Collections in celebration of Philippine Space Week.

The specimens of the Pampanga and Paitan meteorites were donated by the Bayanihan Meteorite Recovery Team, while the Ponggo meteorite fragments came from a personal collection.

They will join the Pantar, Bondoc, and Orconuma meteorites currently on display at the museum. 

The Pampanga meteorite is believed to be the oldest documented Philippine meteorite after it fell behind the Santa Monica Church in Mexico, Pampanga, in 1859.

The Paitan meteorite, which fell in Ilocos Sur in 1910, was believed to be part of Halley's Comet and was thought by its founder to be a sign of the end of the world.

Confirmed to have landed in 2022 in Quirino province, Ponggo is the most recent meteorite in the country that struck a house, leaving behind a palm-sized crater on the concrete floor.

The only Philippine meteorite not in the collection of the National Museum, the Calivo meteorite, fell in Aklan in 1916. —VBL, GMA Integrated News