Meteorites are found in two ways: first, it is sometimes observed that bright meteors (fireballs) penetrate the atmosphere at low altitude. If we search the area under the point where the fireball was burned-out, we can find one or more debris that has hit the ground. In other words, observed meteorite falls can lead to the recovery of fallen meteorites. (some meteorites have even hit buildings or, very rarely, people – see Making Connections: Some striking meteorites).
The 2013 Chelyabinsk fireball, Debris from the Solar System, produced tens of thousands of tiny meteorites, many of which are easy to find because these dark stones fell on the snow.
However, there are many false alarms about meteorite falls. Most observers of a bright fireball conclude that part of it has fallen to the ground, but this is rarely the case. Every few months the media reports that a meteorite was involved in the start of a fire. These stories have always turned out to be wrong. The meteorite is icy in space, and most of its interior remains cold even after its brief, fiery immersion in the atmosphere. A recently fallen meteorite is more likely to get a layer of frost than to start a fire. .
Sometimes people discover unusual looking rocks that turn out to be meteorites; These rocks are called meteorite finds. After meteorites became known to the public, every year a lot of unusual fragments, not all of which come from space, are sent to experts. Some scientists divide these objects into two categories: “meteorites” & “meteor wrongs”. “Outside of Antarctica, real meteorites appear at an average rate of around 25 or more per year. Most of them end up in natural history museums or specialized meteorological laboratories around the world.
Since the 1980s, sources in Antarctica have dramatically increase our knowledge of meteorites. As a result of the ice movement in some parts of this continent, more than a thousand meteorites have been recovered from Antarctica. Meteorites that fall in regions where ice accumulates are buried and then slowly carried to other areas where the ice is gradually eroded.
After thousands of years, the rock is found again on the surface, along with other meteorites that are carried to these same places. The ice thus concentrates the fallen meteorites that fall both over a large area & over a long period of time. Once On the surface, the rocks stand out from the ice and are therefore easier to see than anywhere else on our rocky planet.
