[Rockhounds] Antarctica: Metal meteorite quest set to get under way

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A team of British scientists has arrived in the Antarctic to try to find
the continent's "missing meteorites".

The group, from the University of Manchester, will spend six weeks scouring
a remote region for lumps of iron that have fallen from the sky.

These pieces of metal represent the shattered remains of small planet-like
objects that were destroyed in the early years of the Solar System.

Iron meteorites are rare, however, especially in Antarctica.

Less than 1% of all the space rocks recovered in searches on the continent
are of the metal type, compared with about 5% elsewhere in the world.

But the Manchester researchers believe they know the reason for this
statistical deficit.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50549855