The Science Life Planetary Science

How drones are helping scientists find meteorites

The machines can cut about 300 days of human effort down to about a dozen

A drone casts a shadow on the ground while it hovers above a dark object flagged as a potential meteorite.

A drone casts a shadow on the ground while it hovers above a dark object flagged as a potential meteorite.

The Desert Fireball Network

By Katherine Kornei

Meteorites offer tantalizing clues about what the early solar system was like. But finding them is far from rocket science. Often, researchers simply fan out across a landscape and walk for hours while staring at the ground.