THIS ordinary looking rock was spotted in RAMM's collection about 15 years ago. It was immediately identified as a meteorite.

Meteor means 'shooting star' or 'falling rock'. A large number of meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere each day amounting to more than a hundred tons of material. During one of the annual meteor showers you may see as many as 100 in an hour.

Most of them are very small. Only the largest meteors ever reach the Earth's surface. Their remains are called meteorites. The largest was found in Hoba/ Namibia and weighs 60 tons.

Most meteorites are made of rock or dust of other planets or moons. Apart from the few kilos of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo and Luna missions, meteorites are our only material evidence of the universe beyond the Earth.