14 DAY TRIAL // A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed.
Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transited the atmosphere or impacted the Earth are called falls. All other meteorites are known as finds. As of mid-2006, there are approximately 1050 witnessed falls having specimens in the world's collections. In contrast, there are over 31 000 well-documented meteorite finds.
All meteorites are invaluable for science, like the Allan Hills 84001 Mars meteorite, the one that proved the existence of life on Mars, or Canyon Diablo, an iron meteorite used by pre-historic Native Americans.
Sadly, many collectors and so-called entrepreneurs have recently noticed the marketable value of meteorites, and taking advantage of the poverty in some countries and the lack of education regarding the value (the more commercial one instead of the scientific one) of meteorites, and have developed a black market of such items.
One example is Mauritania, a small country in Northern Africa where poverty is more than familiar to most inhabitants. In the market of Nouadhibou, a city in a region over which authorities have almost no control, some of the rarest rocks on earth that land from space in the wastelands of the Sahara desert can be traded along with chickens and goats.
People come here because they collect stones and rocks, and Nomads bring them from the desert. They say the stones have fallen from the sky.
Foreigners had become very interested in these stones recently, knowing they were valuable, and they declare to want them as decorations for their homes.
Many are smuggled to collectors around the world and experts are worried that valuable scientific research is being lost as a result.
They are easy to spot in the desert and people will sometimes go in search of them if they see a meteor shower at night.
Caroline Smith, curator of the meteorite collection in London's Natural History Museum, says some of her meteorites are extremely valuable because, at 4,500 million years old, they are the oldest objects known to man.
"Meteorites are vitally important to scientists because we can understand our solar system and our own planet so much better by understanding and studying meteorites," she says. "They can tell us a wealth of information, such as the very first stages of the formation of the solar system over four and a half billion years ago".
But Ms Smith is worried that the craze for meteorite collecting is having a damaging effect on scientific research.
"The commercial value of meteorites has now been realized," she says. "It has affected our work because we are now competing against private collectors to obtain material for our research."
The extraordinary voyages of meteorites, which started thousands of millions of years ago, now often come to their final destination at a very surreal place, the Internet auction site eBay.
There are dozens of advertisements selling meteorites, often for no more than $10 or $20.
Institutions like the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institute in the United States will not import meteorites from North Africa, knowing that the region has become a favorite target for dealers and smugglers, but there is little hope that this method will discourage the trafficking of such invaluable objects.