Over the last 200 years, 21 meteorite falls have been witnessed in the British Isles (UK and Ireland). There are also several known British meteorite “finds”, i.e. meteorites that were found, but not observed to fall. Many of the British meteorites are of significant historical as well as scientific interest. Two falls around 1800, Wold Cottage (Yorkshire, 1795) and High Possil (Glasgow, 1804), were among the first meteorites whose scientific value was recognized. Most British meteorites are a common class called ordinary chondrites, which come from asteroids and include some of the first solids to form within the Solar System. Two of the meteorites are rarer classes, an iron and a primitive achondrite. These are derived from asteroids that underwent melting and core formation shortly after they accreted, 4.6 billion years ago. In this presentation, I will discuss the history and science of British meteorite falls. I will also provide an overview of the scientific importance of other meteorite classes, including lunar and martian meteorites. If we are very lucky one of these could be our next fall, any day now!

Knowledge Anchor’s notes - Conway Mothobi FRAS
Rhian worked at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA for 25 years: starting as Postdoctoral Fellow, and left left as Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Included position as Curator of the Meteorite Collection at the Institute of Meteoritics for 6 years.
Rhian’s main research interests are in– petrology and the geochemistry of chondrite meteorites. Her extensively published scientific articles are mostly on, mostly on meteorites. Rhian is a Fellow of The Meteoritical Society and the Mineralogical Society of America, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has the minor planet, Asteroid 5366, named after her and designated “5366 rhianjones”