What's in a Name? The Rigorous Science Behind How Meteorites Are Officially Designated

When a meteorite hunter crouches over a dark, fusion-crusted stone on the sunbaked floor of the Mojave or the wind-swept plains of Kansas, the rock in her gloved hand is, at that moment, unnamed. It may have traveled four and a half billion years through the solar system to reach that patch of American ground, but until it passes through a formal review process, it exists outside the official scientific record. The name that eventually attaches to it is not arbitrary. It is a precisely constructed identifier that carries a remarkable amount of information—where the rock was found, when it was recovered, how it is chemically and structurally classified, and sometimes even which institution is responsible for its curation. For collectors and scientists alike, that name is a primary tool of verification and understanding.

The Nomenclature Authority: Who Actually Decides

Responsibility for formally naming meteorites rests with the Meteoritical Society's Nomenclature Committee, a body of international scientists that reviews submissions and publishes approved names in the Meteoritical Bulletin, an open-access database that serves as the definitive global registry. Any researcher, institution, or—in certain circumstances—private collector who recovers a new specimen and wishes to have it officially recognized must submit documentation to this committee. That documentation typically includes physical and chemical data, thin-section imagery, and details about the recovery location and circumstances.

The Meteoritical Bulletin currently lists more than 70,000 approved meteorites, a number that grows substantially each year as systematic Antarctic and hot-desert recovery programs add new specimens. Without this centralized authority, the scientific literature would quickly become an unnavigable tangle of duplicate names, disputed attributions, and unverifiable claims.

Location as Identity: The Geographic Foundation of Every Name

The cornerstone of meteorite nomenclature is geography. In most cases, a meteorite's official name is derived from the place where it was found. This convention is straightforward for witnessed falls and isolated finds: the Peekskill meteorite, recovered in New York after a 1992 fireball, carries that Hudson Valley town's name. The Brenham pallasite, one of the most celebrated olivine-rich space rocks in American collections, is named for Brenham Township in Kiowa County, Kansas, where pieces have been turning up since the late nineteenth century.

When multiple meteorites are recovered from the same general area—a common occurrence in the stranding zones of Antarctica and the Sahara—a slightly different protocol applies. A location abbreviation is paired with a sequential number. Specimens recovered near the Allan Hills ice field in Antarctica, for example, carry the prefix ALH, followed by a two-digit year code and a five-digit find number. The famous ALH84001, the Martian meteorite at the center of a 1996 debate over possible fossilized microbial structures, gets its entire identity from this system: Allan Hills, found in 1984, specimen number 00001.

Hot-desert recoveries follow comparable conventions. Stones found in the Dar al Gani region of Libya are prefixed DaG; those from the Dhofar region of Oman carry the prefix Dho. American desert finds, particularly those emerging from systematic surveys in Nevada and California, are increasingly catalogued under location-based codes as well.

Classification Suffixes: Where Chemistry Enters the Name

Beyond the geographic identifier, every officially registered meteorite carries a classification that describes its physical and chemical character. This classification is not technically part of the name itself, but it invariably accompanies the name in any scientific or commercial context, and understanding it is essential for anyone serious about collecting.

The broadest division separates stones, irons, and stony-irons. Stones—by far the most common type—are further divided into chondrites and achondrites. Chondrites are primitive, undifferentiated rocks that preserve the chemical composition of the early solar nebula; they are subdivided into groups including ordinary chondrites (H, L, and LL), carbonaceous chondrites (CI, CM, CR, CV, and others), and enstatite chondrites. Achondrites, by contrast, originate from bodies that underwent melting and differentiation—they include the HED meteorites from the asteroid Vesta, Martian meteorites (SNC group), and lunar meteorites.

Iron meteorites are classified by their structural patterns and chemical composition, particularly the concentrations of nickel and trace elements such as gallium, germanium, and iridium. The group designations—IAB, IIIAB, IVA, and so on—reflect these chemical clusters. Stony-irons, the rarest of the three broad types, include the visually spectacular pallasites and the less familiar mesosiderites.

For a collector, this classification is not merely academic. A specimen listed as an LL6 ordinary chondrite tells an informed buyer that the rock is a low-metal, low-iron chondrite that has been thermally metamorphosed to the sixth petrologic grade—a relatively common type, broadly available, and well understood. A CV3 carbonaceous chondrite, on the other hand, signals a more primitive, less altered composition with potential presolar grains intact, commanding considerably more scientific and commercial interest.

Pairing and Weathering Grades: The Fine Print of Desert Finds

Two additional designations frequently appear alongside meteorite names and classifications, particularly for desert recoveries: pairing assessments and weathering grades.

Because thousands of meteorites may have fallen in the same stranding zone over thousands of years, scientists must determine whether two or more specimens represent fragments of the same original fall or genuinely distinct meteorites. Pairing two stones together reduces the apparent diversity of the meteorite record and is done cautiously, based on matching mineralogy, chemistry, and oxygen isotope ratios. Collectors should be aware that a meteorite listed as a paired fragment may be described with a slightly different name or number than its companion pieces.

Weathering grades, expressed on scales specific to each desert environment, communicate how extensively a meteorite has been altered by terrestrial processes since landing. Antarctic specimens use a W0 through W6 scale; hot-desert finds use a similar system. A high weathering grade indicates significant oxidation and mineral alteration, which can affect both scientific utility and collector value. Fresh, minimally weathered material is generally preferred by researchers and serious enthusiasts alike.

Why Naming Conventions Matter to Collectors

For anyone purchasing meteorites—whether building a first collection or adding a significant specimen to an established one—the formal name and classification serve as a chain of custody. A stone listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin can be cross-referenced against published analyses, confirming that it has been examined and approved by credentialed scientists. The name also allows a buyer to locate peer-reviewed literature describing the specimen's mineralogy, isotopic ratios, and cosmic ray exposure age.

At Jensen Meteorites, every specimen offered for sale is identified by its official Meteoritical Bulletin designation wherever one exists. This commitment to nomenclature transparency is not bureaucratic formality—it is the foundation of scientific credibility. When you know exactly what a meteorite is called and why it carries that name, you know something genuine about where it came from, what it is made of, and how it fits into the larger story of our solar system.

A name, in this context, is never just a label. It is a compressed scientific biography, four and a half billion years in the making.