![black meteorite identification pictures black meteorite identification pictures](https://askanearthspacescientist.asu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/panopoly_image_full/public/side-content/martian-meteorite.jpg)
It is not possible to identify a rock as a lunar or martian meteorite simply from its appearance expensive tests are required. You have got a better chance of winning big in the lottery than finding a lunar or martian meteorite. No lunar meteorite has yet to be found in the Americas or Europe all were found in deserts on drier continents. Less than 1 in 1000 of all known meteorites are from the Moon, and the number is less for Mars. Only about 1900 meteorites have been found in the United States in the past 220 years. As I note on my lunar meteorites web page, meteorites are rare, lunar meteorites are exceedingly rare. Even if it is a meteorite, it is not from Moon or Mars. Or, as one of my experienced correspondents put it, most rocks that fall from the sky are not meteorites. Really.) Not everything that falls from the sky is a meteorite. (Nearly every rock that someone has described to me as “it wasn’t there yesterday” was just the right size for throwing. I cannot explain how your rock got to be where you found it, but I can say that it is not a meteorite. I have been sent many wonderful stories from people who swear that they saw the rock fall, that the rock was not in their driveway yesterday, or that it split their tree in two. On the basis of my experience with the various meteorwrongs that I have examined, you likely have a hematite concretion or some kind of industrial by-product ( slag). Your rock is loaded with quartz or calcite, minerals that do not occur in rocks from other bodies in the solar system. It has lots of vesicles (holes, gas bubbles) vesicles are rare in meteorites but common in Earth rocks and slags. Yes, your rock is funny-looking and different from other rocks in the area where you found it, but it does not have a fusion crust or regmaglypts and it does not attract a magnet, so why do you think it is a meteorite at all? Your rock has a rough exterior, unlike the smooth appearance of most stony meteorites. Rude admonishments I am sorry, but you have not found a meteorite. In order to strike a balance between use of my time and providing a service to the community, I have adopted the policies described below. As people’s interest in meteorites increases and the price of rare meteorites remains high, I expect such inquiries to increase. ( I am a retired lunar geochemist who is not good at identifying Earth rocks.) Other scientists who study meteorites have had the same experience and most no longer respond to questions from the public. I have spent a lot of time looking at photos, answering e-mail messages, and bothering my colleagues who are real geologists.
![black meteorite identification pictures black meteorite identification pictures](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/black-meteorite-stone-space-96504037.jpg)
Nearly all of these people questioned whether they had found, bought, or inherited a meteorite, had questions about a funny-looking rock, wanted to sell me rocks, wanted to chat about meteorites (I do not chat), or chastised me because they found my admittedly rude admonishments below to be too rude.
![black meteorite identification pictures black meteorite identification pictures](https://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-2599-38751/2012-0402+Iron+Meteorite+Tanzania+(UNK)1.jpg)
I received emails from at least 29 people from Turkey, a country from which only 26 recognized meteorites have been found, yet none from Chile, a country in which 3189 meteorites have been found.
![black meteorite identification pictures black meteorite identification pictures](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CSK/2016_CSK_12341_0015_000(martian_meteorite_nwa_7034_black_beauty_martian_basaltic_breccia_moroc052945).jpg)
In 2023, I was contacted 5409 times by 1498 different persons from at least 76 countries. Since I began my website about lunar meteorites in 1998, I have received tens of thousands of inquiries about meteorites.