Museum collection
The meteorites a museum keeps, studies and shows to visitors, so everyone can learn from them.
A museum collection is a carefully looked-after group of objects. Many natural history museums have meteorite collections, with some specimens on display for visitors and many more kept in storerooms for scientists to study. Each one has a label and a number so that people always know what it is and where it came from.
Museums matter because they keep meteorites safe for a very long time. A rock that fell two hundred years ago can still be studied today with new machines that nobody had imagined back then. Museums also lend small pieces to scientists around the world.
One of the most amazing museum meteorites is Ahnighito, the largest piece of the Cape York iron meteorite from Greenland. It weighs about 31 tonnes, heavier than several elephants put together, and sits in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It is so heavy that its supports go right down into the bedrock beneath the museum. In London, the Natural History Museum keeps pieces of the Winchcombe meteorite that fell in England in 2021. When you visit a museum, look for the label. It tells you the meteorite's name, the type of rock, and where and when it fell or was found.
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Level: Beginner Ages 7 and up