Highland hillwalkers asked to look out for space rocks

Researchers have asked walkers to help track down meterorite fragments that landed in the Highlands in July

Hillwakers aiming to bag some of the most remote Munros in Scotland have been asked to look out for a bigger prize - meteorite fragments that landed in the Highlands this summer.

The burning light of an exploding meteor was seen from the Isle of Lewis to Edinburgh and was captured on many cameras as it shot across the sky in the early hours of 3 July.

Researchers from the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) have now identified a 20km (12.4 mile) area near Dalwhinnie where fragments of rock are likely to have landed.

They want walkers to collect samples of the shiny, black rocks to help research into how earth and the solar system formed and developed.

Dr Aine O'Brien, of the University of Glasgow's School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, said the meteorite fragments were "black, glassy and shiny".

Some may also be rusted due to their high iron content being affected by recent heavy rain.

Dr O'Brien encouraged walkers who come across the rocks not to pick them up with their bare hands.

Instead, the team has asked that the fragments are wrapped in aluminium foil or a clean sandwich bag to preserve the material.

Larger chunks can be registered with a GPS location to be collected by the team at a later date.

The fall zone covers a 20km area near Dalwhinnie, but most are likely to have fallen on Ben Alder's plateau

Dr O'Brien said: "The fall line area has three lochs, munros and a large boggy area so we appreciate we're looking for a needle in multiple haystacks," she said.

"If someone is lucky enough to bag a meteorite while bagging a Munro, we're asking them to take a photo and take a note of their GPS location and send it to the UK Fireball Alliance."

Researchers combined data from public videos with images taken from their own tracking cameras to estimate a 20km area where fragments of rock may have fallen.

Hikers usually need to take a train to Corrour - the highest mainline railway station in the UK - and then walk for hours before taking on any of the mountains in the area.

But the majority are thought to have landed on Ben Alder's plateau, where the exposed granite could make the dark space rock more visible to visitors.

Prof Luke Daly led the team which recovered the largest intact fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite

Prof Luke Daly, also of the University of Glasgow, led a team of academic volunteers and several citizen scientists who recently spent several days scouring the western side of the fall line.

Their efforts were cut short by bad weather before they could recover any fragments.

He said: "I think we spotted everything else that was black in the area - slugs, stones and sheep droppings - so there's hope someone can locate a meteorite."

The professor said three or four meteorites land in the UK every year but it has been more than a century since a fragment was found in Scotland.

In 2021, he led the team which recovered the largest intact fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite, the first of its kind to be retrieved on UK soil in nearly 30 years.

Prof Daly said: "Meteorites are time capsules of the early solar system, which hold a wealth of information about how it formed and developed.

"This is a very exciting opportunity to learn more about where this rock came from and where it has been and fill in a bit more of the jigsaw of our solar system's history."