Knowing what meteorites look like is only half of the battle. Can you spot the meteorite? Click on the image for a closer look. Most of the rocks in this image are dark / rusty brown and slightly magnetic. They didn’t know what meteorites looked like they just noticed that a rock didn’t look like the other ones around. Many meteorites have been found by people familiar with rocks, their surroundings, their farms, etc., who noticed something out of place. Which raises an important idea: if hunting for meteorites, it is very important that you be familiar with characteristics that meteorites do not have. Most iron-bearing, magnetic rocks on Earth are from Earth. Note: many have deep indentations in their surfaces, but no “bubbles.”īut be careful - many terrestrial rocks also contain (magnetic) iron, and people have been concentrating iron to make tools (and thus, slag), for thousands of years. They’re typically fairly easy to identify. Here are some examples of chondrules in cut meteorites:Īll of the above meteorites would be very strongly attracted to a magnet. In rare cases they can be larger, but they’re usually 1 mm or so. They range from 0.1 mm or smaller to ~1 cm across. In a nutshell - they’re small spherical droplets of rock, usually about a millimeter in diameter. What are chondrules? We’re not sure exactly how they formed, but we know they date back to the earliest days of our solar system, 4.56 billion years ago. This kind of meteorite usually contains features called chondrules. ~90+% of all meteorites are “stony” meteorites. There are a few other kinds of details you can look for. Weathering on usually Earth starts from the edges/corners, rounding those off first. The textures are important - note that the older fusion crust is uniformly textured even on concave surfaces: that’s uncommon for terrestrial rocks. If you look carefully, you can see that some still have some smooth fusion crust, although it has been weathered to brown or has been mostly chipped off in many cases. Most meteorites on Earth fell at least hundreds if not thousands of years ago, so a rusty color is fairly typical of most meteorites: After a few decades, they’ll be ~thoroughly rusty. This iron begins to rust after landing on Earth: a freshly fallen meteorite won’t be rusty, but ~95% of meteorites will begin to show at least minor oxidation within weeks to months. ~95% of meteorites contain between ~10 and ~20% metallic iron when they fall. What do those meteorites look like? Well… Weathered meteorites Most meteorites found on Earth have spent thousands of years here, just waiting to be picked up. But most meteorites that are found didn’t fall recently.

So, right after they fall, most meteorites have a black crust on the outside, and they range from ~white to ~black on the inside. So, we’ll skip the details on diogenites and visually ~similar meteorites. However, these meteorites are exceedingly rare, and only a dozen or so have been seen to fall in recorded history. There are also a few exceptions to the grey-black gradient - namely with pale green meteorites made mostly of olivine or pyroxene. There are a few other details you might have noticed…a few have started to oxidize (3rd, 6th images).

As you can see, they range from ~light grey to black inside. Most of the broken stones fragmented in the atmosphere or when they landed on a hard surface. The above album contains freshly-fallen meteorites. The last molten material on the rock’s surface cools and solidifies on the outside of the meteorite, forming a “ fusion crust.” This layer is usually fairly smooth, but is not the polished texture of a water-worn pebble. As the fragments are slowed down by the atmosphere, their surfaces begin to cool. If any rocks do survive the passage, they almost always bear some scars. The body is usually broken up by extreme ram pressures, and the fragments begin to ablate as well. The outside of the meteorite vaporizes, and a thin molten layer forms on the outside of the rock. This causes intense heat and pressure to act on the surface of the rock. For comparison, the Space Shuttle used to enter the upper atmosphere at ~8 kilometers per second. Usually ~ 20 to 40 kilometers per second. When meteorites enter the atmosphere, they’re moving really quickly. But there are a few things you can look for. There are many different types of meteorites, and an even wider variety of rocks from Earth. Maybe someone has approached you with a rock they think is a meteorite, hoping to sell it. Maybe you’ve just found a strange rock, or maybe you’ve had one laying around for years.

Non magnetic meteorite