Photo story: Antarctica meteorite hunt

University of Copenhagen geologist Jesper Holst left his warm office chair at the Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen and went to the McMurdo station in Antarctica.

He is hunting for meteorites, lumps of stone and metals from space. Scientists collect and analyse them to learn more about how our solar system was created.

“Meteorites fall all over the globe. We could just as well be looking out in the forest or fields, but it is hard to find black stones on the forest floor. Antarctica is a big, white continent, and the wind is so harsh that it peels off layers of ice. The meteorites end up lying on the surface of the ice in front of the mountain tops,” he explains.

Click on the gallery here or see the pictures below. Photos by Anne Peslier, Katie Joy and Jesper Holst.

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