Hikers in Scotland are being asked to assist scientists in a “race against time” to recover fragments of a meteorite streaked across the sky on July 3.
On September 12, the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) announced that the search is targeted across a 20-kilometer stretch (12 miles) of the Scottish Highlands, particularly Munro mountains.
The space rock, which created a viral fireball visible nationwide, may have dropped fragments as heavy as 10 kilograms (roughly 20 pounds).
If successful, the mission would mark the first time in over a century that a meteorite has been recovered in Scotland.
Interesting Engineering (IE) reached out to Luke Daly, Professor of Planetary Geoscience, University of Glasgow, to get more insights on the hunt.
He stated that the chances of finding the fragments are “slim,” calling the search “hard at the best of times.”
Professor Daly remains hopeful, believing that the chances of success will increase if more people join the search.
“We only need to find one piece, and even if it’s only 1 gram, that would be enough to do a wealth of experiments that will uncover some new insights into the early Solar System,” Daly, co-leader of the search party, told IE.
The alliance includes volunteers from the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, and Manchester, as well as several citizen scientists.
The July fireball event
Meteorites are invaluable “time capsules of the early Solar System.”
Meteors are the spectacular streaks of light created when matter, like space rock, from space enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up. The fragments of this material that survive to land on the ground are called meteorites.
On July 3, 2025, a large, bright meteor, or fireball, was seen across Scotland and parts of the UK and Ireland. The event was recorded by many cameras and reported by nearly 150 people.
Experts calculated that the meteoroid likely came from the inner parts of the main asteroid belt and weighed just over 60 kg before entering the atmosphere.
This means that some fragments might be lying in the remote mountain areas. The UKFAll, a collaboration of camera networks, used footage from 14 cameras to reconstruct the meteor’s path and fragmentation.
The prime search area is Ben Alder plateau and its surrounding valleys and hills, located between Loch Trieg and Loch Ericht in the Munros.
Finding fragments is hard
The alliance notes an urgent need to find these fragments before they degrade in Earth’s environment.
Daly revealed that the Scottish landscape makes meteorite hunting “hard mode.” Despite the yearly average of one meteorite landing in Scotland, the recovery rate is very low.
The terrain, which includes extensive peatland, bogs, and lochs, often swallows up fragments.
Plus, the longer the fragments sit exposed to the elements, the more they are weathered, and the less information they can provide about their cosmic journey.
In fact, Professor Daly and the alliance team searched for several days but were forced to end their expedition due to thunderstorms, preventing them from reaching Ben Alder (where larger chunks are expected).
The search is paused as the team secures funding for another expedition.
“In the meantime, we’re looking for your help if you are out walking in the area to look out for black rocks that look very unusual and are heavy for their size,” he told IE.
What to look for
Meteorites are typically black, shiny, and have an almost glassy look. These celestial rocks feel unusually heavy due to high iron content (up to 30%) and may appear rusty after being exposed to Scottish weather.
The dark color should make them relatively easy to spot against the area’s native grey granite and schist rocks.
“Meteorites are also magnetic, but we ask people not to use a magnet on them as it destroys any magnetic field preserved in the rock from when it formed 4.56 billion years ago,” Daly highlighted.
If a potentially large fragment is found, the researchers ask that a photo be taken, along with a GPS coordinate.
If the piece is small enough to be picked up, it should be handled indirectly by wrapping it in aluminum foil or a clean sandwich bag. This prevents contamination. The UKFAll website has a detailed guide on how to report a find.
Historically, the few meteorites recovered in Scotland were found when they landed in cities.
For instance, the last one, in 1917, went through the roof of a house. This new fall, however, occurred in one of the most remote parts of the country, making the assistance of hillwalkers critical.
The successful retrieval could help fill in the gaps in our knowledge about the solar system’s formation. And of course, it will make history by finding one after almost a century in Scotland.