I have always wanted to find a meteorite and I was especially hopeful during our trip to Antarctica as I had read about discoveries of chunks of cosmic iron and stones on the ice, including meteorites traced to the moon and Mars. In many ways, Antarctica seemed like the closest I was ever going to get to Mars. Scientists discover meteorites in Antarctica every year, but alas, I didn’t see anything during our expedition.

On our trip back from Uluru (Ayers Rock) we saw on the map the Henbury Meteorite Craters about 130 km south of Alice Springs and decided to check it out. Over a dozen craters were formed 4-5,000 years ago when a nickel-iron meteoroid traveling at over 40,000 kilometers per hour broke up into pieces before impact. While considerably smoothed over the millennia, the impact craters can still be discerned.

 The sun was bearing down and the temperature was up around 35°C (95°F). This area is swarming with black flies that are incredibly persistent in trying to enter one’s eyes, nose or ears. Even after you brush them away, they return in a second or two. They don’t bite, but they are incredibly annoying. The only way to avoid going mad (unless you have the equanimity to just let the flies crawl all over your face) is to wear netting that covers the head. Still an occasional fly is able to crawl up under the netting, but you can limit this by cinching up the drawstring around your neck. 

Determined to spot a meteorite, I walked slowly, peering through my netting, carefully scanning the ground for anything that looked promising. Cynthia asked, “What should I be looking for?” I said, “Look for something dark, something that feels heavy like metal.” Julian searched as well; he has always been a keen observer and is able to spot things his dad cannot. I got out my smartphone where I’ve installed a metal detector app (Smart Compass Pro). With this, we were able to do a quick check to see whether the rocks we found were magnetic, as they would be if they were composed of a nickel-iron alloy typical of some kinds of meteorites).

We searched for nearly an hour. Julian came across a number of dark stones that looked like they may have been melted. They had no effect on the metal detector. Later, we concluded that they may have been tectites, stones that are formed when surface rocks are melted during meteor impacts. We discarded them. I was getting hot and feeling dehydrated, ready to return to the car. Then Cynthia shouted, “I think I found one!” I came rushing over to see what she had—a very dense black stone with a smooth surface. It definitely felt like a lump of metal. When I brought the stone close to the corner of the smartphone, the metal detector app went crazy. Cynthia immediately exclaimed, “Happy Father’s Day, Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday! Since you didn’t find your meteorite in Antarctica, here is one for you!”

Of course, at this point none of us are certain that either one of these stones are actually meteorites. If somehow we were able to slice one in half and polish the surface, we may be able to see the distinctive crystalline pattern typical of iron meteorites. In the meantime, we have to be satisfied with the uncertainty. Cynthia says she is not uncertain, but I insist on uncertainty, at least until we leave the country.

At the Museum of Central Australia in Alice Springs there is a display of a 44 kg meteorite that was found at the Henbury Meteorite Craters. Since the discovery of the Henbury Craters in 1931, over 1200 kg of samples have been extracted. Julian and I took our two stones to the museum to compare their appearance with the large specimen. The large meteorite was definitely composed of a nickel-iron alloy and the surface appeared similar to the stones we found.

For a brief video comparing the response of the metal detector app to an ordinary dark stone and the meteorite candidate, see this short movie.