Rocky space debris that deserves our attention

Unusual finds by a South African farmer add to the country's space rock heritage, says Roger Lawrence Gibson, a professor of structural geology and metamorphic petrology at the University of the Witwatersrand.

- Roger Lawrence Gibson

Meteorites, fragments of rock that have fallen to Earth from space in spectacularly fiery fashion, have been the subject of public fascination, awe, myths and even religious worship for thousands of years.

In recent decades, meteorites have become a cosmic Rosetta Stone for scientists investigating the birth throes of our solar system and the organic life it hosts. Meteorites are therefore rightly classified by many countries as an integral part of communal natural heritage and are sought after by museums and private collectors.

South Africa, where I research meteorites, is one such country. In late 2021, my colleagues and I were alerted to an exceptional opportunity. Gideon Lombaard, a farmer in the Northern Cape, reached out to us because he suspected that he had found two meteorite fragments. If proved true, these would be the first meteorite discoveries in South Africa in over 40 years.

After subjecting the fragments to a range of tests, we were able to show that the two fragments, despite being found only a kilometre apart, were unrelated, that is, they must have come from different meteor events.

In August, the Meteoritical Society’s nomenclature committee, which adjudicates all new meteorite submissions, formally accepted our proposal that the two fragments were different meteorites. They approved our suggested names, Brierskop and Wolfkop, after landmarks near their discovery sites.