Plain-words guides to meteorites, from "what is it?" to thin sections under the microscope.
A free course, a glossary of every term, answers to the questions people ask most, and the meteorites, meteor showers and craters everyone should know.
Forty short lessons with quizzes, in four levels from beginner (ages 7 and up) to expert.
A to ZFrom ablation to Widmanstätten pattern: every meteorite word explained in plain English.
QuestionsWhat is it worth? Could one hit me? Have I found one? Short answers and full explanations.
Your questionsSend us your own question about meteorites, fireballs or craters. We answer every one, and publish the best.
StoriesHoba, Allende, Murchison, Chelyabinsk, Winchcombe and the other stones that made history.
Every MondayOne remarkable meteorite each week, its story in brief and why it matters, with every earlier week kept in the archive.
Night skyWhen to watch the Perseids, Geminids and every other major shower, with viewing tips.
ImpactsEarth's great craters, from Vredefort and Chicxulub to Meteor Crater, and what you can see today.
ImpactsFrom Chicxulub and the Ries to Tunguska, Chelyabinsk and asteroids caught hours before they hit, with the energy explained in plain terms.
StoriesWishes on shooting stars, the Tears of St Lawrence, Tomanowos, Tnorala and other traditions from around the world, told beside the science.
Space rocksCeres, Vesta, Bennu, Apophis and more, the asteroids passing Earth this year, and how they are tracked.
Icy visitorsHalley, Swift–Tuttle, Tempel–Tuttle, 67P and the interstellar visitors: the comets behind every meteor shower, and the missions that met them.
ExplorationFrom Apollo and Luna to Hayabusa2, OSIRIS-REx and Chang'e 6: the missions that visited meteorites' homes and brought pieces back.
MineralogyOlivine, kamacite, troilite and the minerals first found in rocks from space: what each is and how to recognise it.
Close to homeEvery recorded fall and find, from Stretchleigh in 1623 to Winchcombe in 2021, with a map and what to do if you find one.
Places to visitThe world's great meteorite collections and the giant meteorites and craters you can see, from London and Vienna to Hoba and Meteor Crater.
Space dustThe tiny space rocks that land everywhere: what they are, where scientists collect them, and how to search safely yourself.
LivesChladni, Biot, Nininger, Cassidy and the curators, hunters and eyewitnesses who built the science of meteorites.
HistoryFrom meteoritic iron beads in Egypt to asteroids tracked all the way to the ground: the milestones in order.
Hunters and collectorsMeteorite law in 66 countries, famous strewn fields, the meteor-wrongs that fool people, and how to stop a meteorite rusting.
Year by yearEvery year with a witnessed meteorite fall, from Nōgata in 861 to the falls caught on camera today, with what came down each year.
AnniversariesMeteorite falls, discoveries, space missions, comets and birthdays for every date of the year, month by month.
Free structured courses for school and home, mapped to what pupils in England study. Each lesson has learning goals, worked examples, an activity and a quiz, and every course ends with a certificate to print. All courses →
The Sun, Moon and stars, shooting stars, rock or metal, craters, the first Moon landing and being a meteorite detective.
Ages 7 to 11Meteorites, magnets, craters, the end of the dinosaurs, meteor showers and Ancient Egypt's iron from the sky.
Ages 11 to 14Gravity and weight, speed and energy on entry, density, the rock cycle, elements and compounds, extinction and asteroid missions.
Ages 14 to 16Isotopes and half-life, orbits, kinetic energy and momentum, metals, the early atmosphere, amino acids, extinction and planetary defence.
Ages 16 to 18Escape velocity and Kepler's laws, entry physics, radiometric ages, oxygen isotopes, spectroscopy, petrology, metallurgy and chirality.
AdultsFrom the asteroid belt to your hand: falls and recovery, classification, dating, Moon and Mars, water and life, impacts, identification and the law.
Try the science for yourself: test a rock you have found, or send an asteroid at Earth and see what happens.
Nine quick home checks, from the magnet test to the streak test, with an honest verdict and safe next steps.
CalculatorChoose size, speed and angle to see the energy, whether it bursts in the air, and the crater it would leave.
ReportSeen a very bright meteor? Record when and where, which way it went, how bright it was and what you heard.
Meteorites are messengers from the rest of the Solar System. Each one connects to a bigger story about how asteroids, planets and even life came to be. See how meteorites link every science →
Chondrites keep the first solids that formed around the young Sun, 4,567 million years ago.
AsteroidsHow many meteorites trace back to a handful of asteroids and the collisions that broke them up.
LayersCores, mantles and crusts: meteorites sample every layer of worlds that melted and later broke apart.
CollisionsCraters, shock waves, melt veins and breccias: what a collision does to solid rock.
Life's ingredientsAmino acids, sugars and nucleobases found in meteorites and in samples from asteroids.
The big pictureAstronomy, chemistry, geology, physics, biology and history: how one rock from space connects them all.
Or browse every topic: Mars, the Moon, Vesta, cosmochemistry, planetary defence, astrobiology and more.
Meteoroid: a rock travelling through space.
Meteor: the streak of light when a meteoroid hits our atmosphere and heats the air. A very bright one is a fireball; one that explodes is a bolide.
Meteorite: the piece that survives and reaches the ground.
Each meteorite is named after the place it fell or was found, for example Allende (Mexico) or Winchcombe (England). Desert finds get numbers, like Northwest Africa 16788.
A fall was seen coming down and collected soon after. Falls are rare and prized because they're fresh. A find turned up later, sometimes thousands of years after landing. Most meteorites are finds from hot deserts and Antarctica, where dark rocks stand out.
Roughly 86% of meteorites seen to fall are chondrites, about 8% are achondrites, about 5% are irons and about 1% are stony-irons.
Never melted since the solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Most contain chondrules: tiny round beads that were once molten droplets. Ordinary chondrites (H, L, LL) are the most common. Carbonaceous chondrites, such as Allende and Murchison, hold water-bearing minerals and organic compounds.
All chondrite groups →Rock from a body that melted and separated into crust, mantle and core, like a mini-planet. They include the HED group from the asteroid Vesta (howardites, eucrites, diogenites), plus ureilites, aubrites, and meteorites from the Moon and Mars.
All achondrite groups →Mostly nickel-iron from the cores of shattered asteroids. Cut, polished and etched, many show a criss-cross Widmanstätten pattern, which forms only through extremely slow cooling over millions of years. The largest known meteorite, Hoba in Namibia (about 60 tonnes), is an iron.
All iron groups →Pallasites are golden-green olivine crystals set in nickel-iron, among the most beautiful rocks known. Mesosiderites are jumbled mixtures of metal and basalt-like rock, smashed together in ancient collisions.
Pallasites and mesosiderites →Eucrites are basalt from Vesta's crust. Diogenites come from deeper down and are rich in the mineral pyroxene. Howardites are surface rubble that mixes the two, glued together by impacts. NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta in 2011–2012 and found surface minerals matching these meteorites. More about the HED meteorites.
What each group is made of, where it comes from, its type specimen and famous examples, and how to recognise it.
HLLLEHELCICMCOCVCKCRCHCBRKAcapulcoitesLodranitesWinonaitesBrachinitesUreilitesHowarditesEucritesDiogenitesAngritesAubritesLunarMartianMain-group pallasitesEagle Station pallasitesMesosideritesIABICIIABIICIIDIIEIIFIIGIIIABIIIEIIIFIVAIVBUngrouped irons
Most rocks people send in turn out to be "meteor-wrongs": slag, iron ore, basalt or concretions. Check these first.
Take clear photos in daylight next to a ruler, and note where you found it, as exactly as you can. Don't clean it with water or acid. Then contact a museum or university with a meteorite collection. In the UK, the Natural History Museum can advise: see found something in the UK or Ireland? Only a lab analysis and approval by the Meteoritical Society makes it official.
Test yourself: identification quiz Meteor-wrongs galleryBig impacts on the Moon and Mars blast rock into space, and a tiny fraction eventually lands on Earth. Lunar meteorites were first recognised with Allan Hills 81005, found in Antarctica in 1982. Martian meteorites are confirmed by gas trapped inside them, which matches the atmosphere measured on Mars by NASA's Viking landers.
The best-known Martian meteorite, Allan Hills 84001, made headlines in 1996 when scientists suggested it held traces of ancient microbes. Most researchers today think non-biological processes can explain the features, but it changed how we search for life.
Common beliefs about meteorites, checked against the evidence. shown.
Read all the history stories The full timeline People of meteoritics Myths and folklore Impact events
A thin section is a slice of meteorite glued to glass and ground down to about 30 micrometres, thinner than a human hair. Under a microscope with polarised light, the minerals glow in bright colours. Chondrules, olivine, pyroxene and metal become easy to see. Scientists use thin sections to classify new meteorites, and collectors love them for their colours.
Rules differ from country to country, so check before you hunt, buy or export. Meteorites from Antarctica are protected and collected only by scientific programmes. Some countries treat meteorites as national heritage and restrict export. In the UK, a meteorite found on private land generally belongs to the landowner. Ask permission before searching, and report important falls so scientists can study them. This is general information, not legal advice.
Meteorite law by country Famous strewn fields Meteor-wrongs Caring for meteorites