Friday, June 12, 1998

Free stuff from space

The city council of Monahans has enunciated what may turn out to be an important new legal principle.

By a vote of 4-0, the council ruled that a meteor that fell near a public basketball court belongs to the four boys who found it and not the city. The decision has financial significance because a meteor broker (who knew there was such an occupation as meteor broker?) says the celestial rock is worth several thousand dollars.

Meteors strike the Earth all the time, and it is now an article of apocalyptic faith that so too one day will an asteroid, a long-shot fear that Hollywood helpfully inflames with movies like "Deep Impact." While dwelling on the devastating consequences of an impact, the movies and the scare stories have not dealt with the question of actual asteroid ownership.

Thanks to the Monahans city council, we know: If a killer asteroid strikes and you're under it, it's yours.