Flight paths and fridge magnets: how a fireball hunter tracked down New Zealand’s newest meteorite

A network of cameras helped guide a group of space enthusiasts to New Zealand’s 11th confirmed meteorite

Days after a massive fireball flashed through New Zealand’s skies last month, Steve Wyn-Harris spotted a small, black stone on the bare ground. The citizen astronomer was on the hunt for debris from the meteor that had flown over the North Island. He bagged the rock but wasn’t too confident, as he says most finds turn out to be “meteor-wrongs”.

But when he held the thumb-sized rock next to a fridge magnet, to detect iron and nickel in meteorites, it clicked. Wyn-Harris did the test on a video call with other citizen scientists and geologists and after the click “we were all yelling”.