Meteorite museums and collections
58 of the world's great meteorite collections and the places where famous meteorites can be seen: national museums, university collections, research centres that look after samples from space, and craters and giant irons you can visit in the open air.
Collections matter because every meteorite is unique. A museum keeps the main mass and the record of where and when it fell, and lends pieces to scientists, so that a stone collected two centuries ago can still be studied with the newest instruments. Many new discoveries come from re-examining old specimens.
Britain and Ireland 7
Geological Museum, Trinity College Dublin
A university museum where the Dundrum meteorite, found warm in a Tipperary potato field in 1865, is on display.
Glasgow, United KingdomHunterian, University of Glasgow
Scotland's oldest public museum, which holds a piece of High Possil, the first meteorite recorded in Scotland.
Dublin, IrelandNational Museum of Ireland – Natural History
Ireland's national collection of meteorites, including the Brasky mass of the great Limerick fall of 1813.
Edinburgh, United KingdomNational Museum of Scotland
Scotland's national collection, home to two of the four stones of the Strathmore fall of 1917.
London, United KingdomNatural History Museum, London
Britain's national meteorite collection: about 2,000 meteorites in some 5,000 pieces, including most British falls.
York, United KingdomYorkshire Museum
The home of the Middlesbrough meteorite, which railway workers saw land beside the line in 1881.
near Wold Newton, East Riding of Yorkshire, United KingdomWold Cottage monument
A brick obelisk of 1799 marking where Britain's largest witnessed meteorite landed.
Europe 16
Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local History
The largest piece of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, about 650 kilograms, lifted from the bed of Lake Chebarkul.
Helsinki, FinlandFinnish Museum of Natural History
The home of Bjurböle, the meteorite that crashed through sea ice off the Finnish coast in 1899.
Moscow, RussiaMeteorite Collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia's national collection, with the Pallas iron and the largest single piece of Sikhote-Alin.
Ensisheim, FranceMusée de la Régence, Ensisheim
The town where Europe's oldest preserved meteorite fall landed in 1492, and where the stone is still shown.
Berlin, GermanyMuseum für Naturkunde, Berlin
One of Europe's great meteorite collections, which includes the collection of Ernst Chladni, the father of meteoritics.
Paris, FranceNational Museum of Natural History, Paris
France's national collection, rich in historic French falls such as L'Aigle, Chassigny and Orgueil.
Prague, CzechiaNational Museum, Prague
A historic collection rich in Czech falls, including Příbram, the first meteorite whose orbit was worked out from photographs.
Bern, SwitzerlandNatural History Museum Bern
Switzerland's meteorite centre, with the Twannberg irons and many meteorites from the deserts of Oman.
Copenhagen, DenmarkNatural History Museum of Denmark
Home of Agpalilik, a 20-tonne mass of the Cape York iron from Greenland.
Vienna, AustriaNatural History Museum Vienna
The oldest meteorite collection in the world and its largest display: about 1,100 meteorites on show in one hall.
Nördlingen, GermanyRies Crater Museum, Nördlingen
A museum inside a 15-million-year-old impact crater, built from the shocked rock the impact made.
Brussels, BelgiumRoyal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Belgium's natural sciences institute and museum, which curates meteorites collected by Belgian and Japanese teams in Antarctica.
Castel Gandolfo, Vatican CityVatican Observatory meteorite collection
A research collection of more than a thousand specimens, built on a French marquis's gift in 1935.
Kaali, Saaremaa, EstoniaKaali Meteorite Centre
A visitor centre beside a ring of craters made by an iron meteorite that fell on an Estonian island a few thousand years ago.
Poznań, PolandMorasko Meteorite Nature Reserve
A forest reserve of small craters on the edge of Poznań, where iron masses of up to 261 kilograms have been dug up.
Steinheim am Albuch, GermanySteinheim Meteor Crater Museum
A small museum in a 3.8-kilometre crater with a central hill, the Ries crater's smaller neighbour.
North America 15
American Museum of Natural History
Home of Ahnighito, the 31-tonne Cape York iron, and the 15.5-tonne Willamette meteorite.
Tempe, Arizona, United StatesCenter for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University
The largest university-based meteorite collection in the world, founded on the life's work of Harvey Nininger.
Chicago, United StatesField Museum
One of the world's largest meteorite collections, with major holdings of Murchison and the 2003 Park Forest fall.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United StatesInstitute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico
The first institute devoted to meteorites, founded in 1944, and home of the tonne-sized Norton County aubrite.
Fort Worth, Texas, United StatesMonnig Meteorite Collection, Texas Christian University
A collection built by one Fort Worth businessman's lifelong passion, with a public gallery since 2003.
Houston, Texas, United StatesNASA Johnson Space Center astromaterials collections
The laboratories that look after the Apollo Moon rocks, US Antarctic meteorites and samples from comets and asteroids.
Ottawa, CanadaNational Meteorite Collection of Canada
Canada's national collection, started in 1854 by the founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Edmonton, CanadaRoyal Alberta Museum
The home of the Manitou Stone, an iron meteorite sacred to the peoples of the northern plains.
Toronto, CanadaRoyal Ontario Museum
Canada's largest museum, which holds the main masses of all three Canadian pallasites.
Washington, DC, United StatesSmithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The US national meteorite collection, one of the largest in the world, and the long-term home of America's Antarctic meteorites.
Cartersville, Georgia, United StatesTellus Science Museum
A Georgia science museum with meteorites that crashed into two houses in the state, in 2009 and 2025.
Los Angeles, United StatesUCLA Meteorite Gallery
The largest university meteorite collection on the American west coast, with a free public gallery.
Edmonton, CanadaUniversity of Alberta Meteorite Collection
Canada's largest university meteorite collection, keeper of pristine frozen pieces of Tagish Lake.
New Haven, Connecticut, United StatesYale Peabody Museum
Home of the largest surviving stone of Weston, the first meteorite fall in the United States to be studied scientifically.
near Winslow, Arizona, United StatesMeteor Crater Visitor Center
A museum on the rim of Meteor Crater, with the Holsinger meteorite, the largest piece of Canyon Diablo ever found.
Latin America 6
Centro de Ciencias de Sinaloa
A science centre that displays Bacubirito, one of the longest meteorites in the world.
Mexico City, MexicoGeology Museum of the National University of Mexico
A historic geology museum that displays the Allende meteorite, which showered northern Mexico in 1969.
San Pedro de Atacama, ChileMeteorite Museum, San Pedro de Atacama
A small museum in the driest desert on Earth, devoted to the meteorites found there.
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilNational Museum of Brazil
The home of Bendegó, the 5.4-tonne iron that survived the fire that destroyed the museum in 2018.
Mexico City, MexicoPalacio de Minería
A colonial palace in the heart of Mexico City where four giant iron meteorites have stood since 1893.
Gancedo, Chaco, ArgentinaCampo del Cielo
A strewn field in northern Argentina where iron masses of around 30 tonnes are shown where they were dug up.
Asia 5
Geological Survey of India Meteorite Gallery
India's national meteorite repository, with more than 600 meteorites including the Martian meteorite Shergotty.
Sagamihara, JapanJAXA Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center
The clean laboratories that received the first grains ever returned from asteroids, from Itokawa and Ryugu.
Jilin, ChinaJilin City Meteorite Museum
Home of the 1,770-kilogram main stone of the Jilin shower, the largest stony meteorite ever seen to fall.
Tachikawa, Tokyo, JapanNational Institute of Polar Research
Japan's Antarctic research institute, keeper of one of the largest meteorite collections in the world.
Nogata, Fukuoka, JapanSuga Shrine, Nogata
A Shinto shrine that has kept the oldest meteorite seen to fall that still survives, since the year 861.
Australia 5
Melbourne Museum (Museums Victoria)
Keeper of a large share of the Murchison meteorite and of several of the giant Cranbourne irons.
Adelaide, AustraliaSouth Australian Museum
A museum whose meteorites include Murnpeowie, a 1.1-tonne iron with a sculpted, thumbprinted surface.
Perth, AustraliaWestern Australian Museum
One of the largest meteorite collections in the southern hemisphere, with giant irons from the Nullarbor.
near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, AustraliaHenbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve
A cluster of a dozen small craters made when an iron meteorite broke up over central Australia about 4,000 years ago.
the Kimberley, Western Australia, AustraliaWolfe Creek Crater
One of the best-preserved meteorite craters on Earth, a ring nearly 900 metres across in the desert.
Africa 4
Gibeon meteorite display, Windhoek
Dozens of Gibeon iron meteorites mounted on columns in a shopping street in Namibia's capital.
near Grootfontein, NamibiaHoba meteorite site
The largest known meteorite, about 60 tonnes, still lying where it was found on a Namibian farm.
north of Pretoria, South AfricaTswaing Crater
A young impact crater just outside Pretoria, with a salt lake on its floor and a visitor centre on its rim.
near Parys, Free State, South AfricaVredefort Dome
The deeply eroded remains of the largest known impact structure on Earth, a World Heritage Site.
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Where to see famous meteorites
Displays change, and research collections are usually open only to scientists, so check with the institution before you visit.