Meteors are brief flashes across the sky. Meteorites, on the other hand, are rocks that you can see in a natural history museum. When you see these rocks on display, you would notice that there are three main types of meteorites. The most common type out there in space is stony. But stony meteorites are under-represented in museums. We talk about the difference between falls and finds. Think about it, a stony meteorite on the ground just looks like, well, a stone. Whereas an iron meteorite is distinctly out of place. It may have even rusted! Any good metal detector could find an iron meteorite. There may be good money in it for you if you find a meteorite. But the very best place to look for meteorites is somewhere where rocks don’t belong, generally. Antarctica. The largest meteorite ever discovered, by the way, is the Hoba meteorite in Namibia. So you think you have found a meteorite? It could possibly be a meteowrong.

Meteorites