Meteorites Authors: Caroline Smith, Sara Russell and Gretchen Benedix Publisher: Natural History Museum, London ISBN: 978-0-565-09239-9 Price: £9.99 (Pb), 112pp
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Meteorites – rocks from space that have fallen to the Earth – provide a unique insight into conditions present during the formation of the Solar System. They originate from asteroids, the Moon and Mars, and as a result can tell us a lot about how our local planetary neighbourhood has evolved. As of January 2009 the meteorite count stood at 37,000, although less than three percent were actually observed to fall and then subsequently collected (the rest were found during dedicated meteorite hunting trips or accidentally).

Meteorites provides a jargon-free introduction to these rosetta stones of the Solar System, and is split into five main chapters beginning with what meteorites are and where they are found, then briefly touching on impacts and collisions before moving on to a detailed section on the sources and types of meteorites, and finishing up with a look at comets, another potential source of a rare breed of meteorite. I found the section on the sources and classification of meteorites most useful; this section would have been invaluable for my undergraduate studies in planetary science nearly a decade ago!

The book has a really modern feel about it; it is well illustrated with clear diagrams and plentiful crisp photographs of real meteorites that bring to life what is being said in the text.

Boxes draw out the key facts – I was especially pleased to see the first box providing a simple explanation of the differences between meteoroids (a small rocky body travelling through space that may or may not become a meteorite), meteors (a 'shooting star' seen as the rock burns up in the Earth's atmosphere) and meteorites (rocks that survive the fall from space and land on the Earth), definitions that I have seen confused by people all too often, even by those who should know better!

Written by meteorite experts based at London's Natural History Museum – which has a collection of some 2,000 meteorites – this book makes an excellent introductory text for someone who has no prior knowledge of meteorites and is looking for a basic grounding in the subject.

Emily Baldwin