There is likely a "good scattering" of meteorites across Aotearoa. Photo: 123RF
The hunt is on for New Zealand's 10th meteorite - and it could be sitting on your back doorstep.
A group of enthusiasts known as Fireballs Aotearoa is asking Kiwis to take photos of any rocks they think could have fallen from space and send them in for analysis.
It has been 20 years since a meteorite was last found in New Zealand.
That rock fell through a roof in Auckland's Ellerslie in 2004, Fireballs Aotearoa publicist Steve Wyn-Harris told Afternoons.
"It bounced off the couch, hit the ceiling and ended up rolling onto the carpet," he said.
The space rock was now in Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Meteorites were fascinating because of the information they held about the history of the universe, Wyn-Harris said.
There was "quite a good scattering of stones out there that have come from the outside of the solar system", he said.
As part of the Great NZ Meteorite Hunt, people were asked to keep an eye out for any "really interesting rocks".
The Kimbolton meteorite was found outside Feilding in 1976. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
New Zealand's 10th meteorite could be "the stone that Grandpa always claimed was a meteorite that's sitting on the back step holding the door open", Wyn-Harris said.
"Most of them won't be meteorites - they'll just be earth rocks, [but] interesting rocks all the same - but you never know."
Freshly fallen meteorites would have "black fusion" crusts because they had vaporised coming through the atmosphere, he said.
Iron meteorites could be identified because they were "much heavier than you'd expect a rock to be".
They were also magnetic, Wyn-Harris said.
"[But] if you ever come across a freshly fallen one, don't put your magnet next to it because you'll destroy a lot of the information it holds about the solar system's formation four-and-a-half billion years ago."
Wyn-Harris said farmers had found most of New Zealand's meteorites to date.
One farmer had found a space rock while harrowing a paddock, while another had picked one up after noticing his sheep kept hitting their hooves on it.
There was likely a "good scattering" of meteorites across Aotearoa, with no one place likely to have more than another, he said.
Anyone with a rock they think could be a meteorite was asked to send photos to the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand at meteorites@rasnz.org.nz.
Scientists would examine the photos and any space rocks that warranted further investigation would be sent to Otago University, where they would go under an electron microscope.
