We have, over the years, been sent many rocks and photographs of rocks that finders suspect to be meteorites.  Some of them we have examined up close, and a few we have analyzed for mineralogy or chemical composition.  For most, however, we have only seen photographs.  It is impossible to identify a meteorite from a photograph.  Often, however, we can say “This is almost certainly not a meteorite” by looking at a photograph. Unfortunately, we usually cannot say with much certainty what kind of rock it actually is by looking at a photograph. The tongue-in-cheak term for a rock that is not a meteorite is a meteorwrong.

We present here a collection of photographs that people have sent us, posted on the Internet and called to our attention, or that we have taken ourselves of rocks that people have sent or brought to us.  For most of them we can say “This is almost certainly not a meteorite.”  For a few, we’re not sure.  For each photo, we provide a short explanation of why we think it is not a meteorite.  We might be wrong. To make it more interesting, we include a few photos of real meteorites for comparison.

Notice: We reserve the right to include here (1) photos that you send us, (2) photos that we take ourselves of rocks that you send us, or (3) photos that you call to our attention that are posted on the Internet if you ask our opinion about whether we think the rock or photo is that of a meteorite.  This is a university; we learn from each other.

Click on a thumbnail photo below to see a specific photo. To see the whole collection in order, just keep clicking on the next link.

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