CMS Services and Policies

Guidelines for Sending Us a Specimen

We offer basic meteorite verification and classification services only. We will not fully classify a meteorite unless we are interested in its purchase or it is a new meteorite fall/find.
Our services are provided free of charge.
We must see the specimen itself, or at least a small part of it, to be able to verify that it is a meteorite.
We are not responsible for samples in transit to/from us. We strongly recommend that all samples be sent to us via a service that provides delivery confirmation, tracking, and insurance.
Currently, we are only accepting one sample per person at a time. Sample testing may take up to 6 months due to instrument scheduling conflicts, volume of samples received, and other Center activities. We cannot guarantee a specific testing date or time.
Do not bring your specimen to the Center in person. This will not speed identification of your specimen, as the Center does not wish to penalize those who send their samples via the proper procedure. Samples brought to the Center will simply be entered in the sample identification queue.
Repeatedly contacting the Center to check on your specimen only slows the identification process, as it keeps us on the phone rather than in the laboratory.
We will not identify specimens purchased from a dealer, commercial vendor, auction house, etc. The goal of the Center’s identification service is to identify new specimens, not confirm claims made by other establishments.
We will call the owners of verified meteorites before returning them to discuss further action. All meteor"wrongs" will automatically be returned to their owners with a letter detailing our findings.

Think You Have a Meteorite?

Visit our specimen identification page and learn how to spot a real meteorite. Then, if you would like us to verify your specimen, print out our verification form and submit it to the Collections Manager.

Meteorite Look-a-Likes

Visit the meteorwrongs photo gallery at Washington University in St. Louis to view some examples of meteorite impostors.

Request a Sample

If you are a researcher at an established, accredited institution and would like to request a sample of one of our specimens for your personal research, please fill out the web form.

This Just In!

Browse the latest additions to our collections, learn about new falls and finds from around the world, and read about the latest meteorite research results by visiting our News section.

Useful Resources

If you need further information on classifying and naming new meteorites, the Meteoritical Society is an excellent reference. To learn more about fireballs or to report a fireball sighting, go to the American Meteor Society website.