The Meteorites

Encounters with Outer Space and Deep Time

Helen Gordon

• Publisher: Profile Books
• eBook ISBN:
  9781800815360
• Year: 2025

A Scientific American Book of the Year 2025

'The Meteorites conjures a small epiphany about our own place in the universe' The Sunday Times

'Dazzling' Financial Times

From your window you can see the stars and distant planets: light years away, it's easy to think that our existences and theirs will never intersect. Yet meteorites - mysterious, irregular rocks of sometimes immense value - connect us with the vastness of the universe. They may have brought the first life to our planet, and today they still reveal extraordinary scientific insights.

Helen Gordon reveals the fascinating stories of fallen meteorites and the lives they've touched - from collectors to kings, scientists to farmers. She meets amateur astronomers and gem dealers, goes meteorite hunting across rooftops and learns what objects moving through space can tell us about the fragility of life on Earth.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• 1: Arrival
• 2: Ceremony for a Meteorite
• 3: The First Iron
• 4: Enlightenment
• 5: Anatomy of a Meteorite
• 6: The World’s Meteorite Fair
• 7: The Saharan Gold Rush
• 8: Stardust
• 9: Preservation
• 10: An Aesthetic Meteorite
• 11: Impact
• 12: Landscapes in Space
• 13: The Office for Outer Space Affairs
• 14: Clear Skies
• Acknowledgements
• Further Reading
• Notes
• Index
• Also by Helen Gordon and Available from Profile Books
• Copyright