Meteorite Check: Identify

Meteorite identification starts with one question: is your rock a meteorite, or a meteorwrong? Meteorite Check helps you answer it.

Most rocks people suspect are meteorites turn out to be ordinary terrestrial stones or man-made slag. Meteorite Check walks you through the same checks a dealer uses, one at a time, and tells you honestly whether your specimen is worth pursuing. It is built for meteorite identification specifically, not general rock identification.

How it works
The app asks a short series of plain-language questions about your rock: how it responds to a cheap magnet, its weight for its size, whether it has a fusion crust, what color streak it leaves on unglazed tile, and what the inside looks like if it has been cut or broken open. Each answer either keeps the rock in contention or rules it out. Hard rule-outs, such as a red hematite streak, gas bubbles, quartz crystals, or visible layering, end the screening early and save you the cost of a lab test on a rock that cannot be a meteorite.

What you get
At the end you get a clear result: ruled out, inconclusive, or strong candidate, with the reasoning behind it. Strong candidates get guidance on the real next step, which is a hands-on examination and, if warranted, laboratory analysis. Positive identification of a meteorite requires laboratory analysis, and the app tells you when that step is warranted.

Honest by design
Screening is not identification and screening is not testing. The app can flag a candidate, but only a laboratory can identify and confirm a meteorite. Meteorite Check never guarantees a result and never tells you a rock is valuable. Its job is to rule out the rocks that are not meteorites so you do not waste money, and to flag the few that are worth a closer look.

Optional photo analysis
You can add a photo of your specimen for an added layer of review, a one-time $1.99 in-app purchase per specimen. A photo can lower a result when it shows a disqualifying feature, but it cannot turn a common rock into a candidate. The structured checks always run first. The step-by-step screening is always free.

Built by people who do this
Meteorite Check is made by Treasure Coast Meteorite Co., a member of the International Meteorite Collectors Association (IMCA member 3323). Every check is grounded in how real meteorites are identified, including the difference between magnetite and hematite, why vesicles point to terrestrial lava or slag, and why nickel matters in metallic specimens.