You're walking through a dry creek bed or maybe just your own backyard when you spot it. A rock that looks... different. It's heavier than it should be. It has a weird, melted crust. Suddenly, your brain goes straight to the dollar signs. You start wondering exactly how much is a meteor and if you can finally quit your day job.
Honestly? It's complicated.
Most people think every rock from space is a winning lottery ticket. They aren't. In fact, most space rocks—properly called meteorites once they hit the ground—are worth about as much as a nice dinner. But then there are the outliers. The lunar slices. The Martian chunks. The iron-nickel beauties that look like abstract sculptures. Those can sell for more than a Ferrari.
The Basic Math of Space Rock Pricing
If you want the short version, most common meteorites (Ordinary Chondrites) sell for roughly $0.50 to $2.00 per gram. That’s it. For perspective, a nickel weighs five grams. So, a common space rock the size of a grape might only net you a few bucks.
But rarity is the engine of this market.
Think of it like cars. A 2012 Honda Civic is a car, and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO is also a car. They don't cost the same. In the meteorite world, the "Civics" are the stony chondrites that make up about 86% of all falls. They’re cool because they’re older than Earth, but they aren't exactly "rare" in the collector world.
Then you have the Ferraris.
Why Provenance Changes Everything
When we talk about how much is a meteor, we have to talk about "hammers." In the meteorite community, a "hammer" is a stone that actually hit something man-made.
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Take the Peekskill Meteorite from 1992. It slammed into the trunk of a Chevy Malibu in New York. The car was worth maybe $300 at the time. After the hit? The owner sold the car for $10,000, and it’s been on display in museums across the globe. The stones from that fall became legendary.
If a meteorite hits a mailbox, a doghouse, or a cow, the price per gram rockets upward. It’s the story you're buying. It's the "witnessed fall" factor. Collectors want the drama. They want the video of the fireball and the 911 calls from confused neighbors. Without that, it’s just a heavy rock.
The Metal and the Glass: Iron and Pallasites
If you find an iron meteorite, you’re looking at a different price bracket. These are the cores of dead planetoids. They’re heavy, magnetic, and when etched with acid, they show a "Widmanstätten pattern"—a crystalline structure that can’t be faked because it takes millions of years of slow cooling in the vacuum of space to form.
Pallasites are the real gems, though. These are "stony-iron" meteorites that contain translucent, olive-green crystals of olivine (peridot) suspended in a nickel-iron matrix. When sliced thin and held to the light, they look like stained glass.
How much for these?
- Iron Meteorites (Campo del Cielo or Canyon Diablo): Usually $0.25 to $5.00 per gram depending on the shape and "regmaglypts" (thumbprint-like indentations caused by atmospheric melting).
- Pallasites (like Esquel or Brenham): These are the high-end art of the meteorite world. High-quality slices can easily fetch $20 to $50 per gram. A large, museum-quality slice can go for $20,000 or more.
Moon and Mars: The Holy Grail
This is where the numbers get truly silly.
Almost all meteorites come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But occasionally, a massive impact on the Moon or Mars knocks chunks of those bodies into space. Eventually, some of those chunks land here.
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We know they're from the Moon or Mars because we can compare the trapped gases inside them to the data from the Apollo missions and the Viking landers. There is no guesswork. It’s pure science.
Because these are so hard to find, they are incredibly expensive. Martian meteorites (Shergottites) often sell for $500 to $1,000 per gram. At those prices, a piece the size of a sugar cube could cost you $2,500. It is literally worth many times its weight in gold.
The "Meteorite" You Found is Probably Slag
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I really do. But 99% of the rocks people send to experts like Dr. Randy Korotev at Washington University or the team at the Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies are "meteor-wrongs."
Usually, they’re just industrial slag.
Iron smelting leaves behind heavy, bubbly, magnetic rocks that look exactly like what a non-expert thinks a meteorite should look like. People find them near old railroads or construction sites and think they've struck it rich.
Here is a quick checklist to see if your "treasure" is worth anything:
- Does it have holes or bubbles? If yes, it’s almost certainly NOT a meteorite. Space rocks don't have bubbles; that's a sign of volcanic gas or industrial cooling.
- Is it magnetic? Most meteorites are, but so are a lot of earth rocks (like magnetite or hematite).
- Is it heavy for its size? Space rocks are dense.
- Does it have a "fusion crust"? This is a thin, dark, eggshell-like coating from the heat of entry. If you chip it, the inside should look different from the outside.
The Global Market: Where to Sell
So, let's say you actually have the real deal. You've confirmed it's not a piece of a melted tractor. Where does the money come from?
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The market is split between private collectors, museums, and high-end auction houses like Christie's or Sotheby's. Every year, these auction houses hold "Deep Impact" sales. They don't just sell rocks; they sell "sculptural" irons that look like something Henry Moore would have carved.
For the average find, eBay is actually a massive hub. But you better have your paperwork. The International Meteorite Collectors Association (IMCA) has strict standards. If you want top dollar, you need a classification. This involves sending a "type specimen" (usually 20 grams or 20% of the rock) to a university lab. They analyze the minerals, publish the data in the Meteoritical Bulletin, and give your rock an official name.
Without that official name, you’re just selling a "space rock" on the honor system. And the honor system doesn't pay well.
Legal Risks: Who Owns the Space?
Before you go hunting, know the law. In the United States, if a meteorite falls on your land, it’s yours. If it falls on private land, it belongs to the landowner. You can’t just wander into someone’s ranch, find a $50,000 Pallasite, and walk away. That's theft.
Public lands are even trickier. On Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, you're generally allowed to collect a small amount for "personal use," but selling rocks found on federal land can land you in serious legal hot water.
In other countries, it’s even more intense. In places like Oman or Algeria—hotspots for finding meteorites because they’re easy to spot on the sand—the government considers them national treasures. Exporting them without a permit is smuggling. People have gone to jail for it. Always check the local jurisdiction before you start your "business."
Practical Steps for Potential Hunters
If you're serious about finding out how much is a meteor by actually finding one yourself, don't just walk around aimlessly.
- Join the community. Follow the American Meteor Society. They track fireballs. If a big fireball is reported over a specific area, that’s your "strewn field."
- Get a good magnet. A rare-earth magnet on a stick is the meteorite hunter’s best friend.
- Buy a loupe. You need to look for "chondrules"—tiny, colorful, grain-like spheres inside the rock. These are the building blocks of the solar system. If you see them, you're in the money.
- Invest in a diamond saw. If you find a potential stony meteorite, you might need to cut a small "window" into it to see the interior. Don't use a regular hacksaw; you'll ruin the specimen and the blade.
- Check the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. Before buying or selling, look up similar finds. See what "NWA" (North West Africa) stones are going for versus "unclassified" chunks.
The reality is that for most people, the value of a meteorite isn't in the bank account. It's in the fact that you're holding something that traveled billions of miles through a freezing void just to land at your feet. That’s pretty cool, even if it only pays for a tank of gas.
If you think you've found a specimen, your first move should be to perform a streak test. Scrape the rock against the unglazed back of a ceramic tile. If it leaves a black or red streak, it’s likely an Earth mineral like magnetite or hematite. If it leaves no streak at all? Well, you might just want to start looking up local university geology departments. This is a game of patience and a lot of "almosts," but the one percent of the time you're right, it's a hell of a feeling.