Rocks and minerals

Fossils are physical evidence of prehistoric animals and plants, but there may be more to them than you ever realised. 

Welcome to the next era of natural history collections. 

Putting Martian meteorites in a nuclear reactor has confirmed their curiously young age.

OSIRIS-REx returned to Earth with a record-breaking amount of material from an asteroid dating back to the birth of our solar system.

NASA’s Perseverance rover may have discovered organic molecules on the surface of Mars.

One of the UK’s most famous meteorites is helping scientists learn more about asteroids millions of kilometres away.

Our scientists are looking for a rock that formed so long ago it was on Earth before complex life lived on land. 

A previously unappreciated group of lifeforms are changing what we know about the evolution of life on Earth.

Many regions of the deep sea are currently being explored for the potential to mine them.

An orange-sized space rock blazed across the skies on Monday 9 January.

It has never been more important to describe as much of the natural world as possible.

An unexpected series of eruptions at Stromboli may be due to changes in the volcano's internal 'plumbing'.

Data being collected from the surface of Mars are already providing a glut of information about Jezero crater.

The next rover to land on Mars could discover signs of a once mighty river ecosystem. 

The origins of a meteorite which lit up skies above the UK last year have been revealed.

Minute structures found in 3.48-billion-year-old Australian rocks are the oldest evidence of life on Earth.

A large part of the asteroid belt may have been formed out on the fringes of the Solar System.

In the midst of war, scientists have been working to protect historic artworks.

Investigating Mars' dry lakes could help scientists to discover how life began on Earth. 

Over a century ago, one of the most important scientific expeditions in history departed from the UK to explore the oceans of the world. 

Re-establishing the city of Goma one year after the destructive eruption of Mount Nyiragongo

Plankton which help feed the ocean, lock away carbon dioxide and even influence the weather may not be as vulnerable to climate change as feared.

While the plants flowered, lunar soils negatively affected their growth, meaning there is still some way to go until farming on the Moon becomes a viable prospect. 

Moon dust can be used to create the materials needed to explore space.

Analyses of three meteorites suggest that the raw material for the origin of life may have formed in space.

It beats the previous record holder by tens of millions of years.

With the finding yet to be published in a scientific journal, debate continues over whether this could be the case. 

The minerals, Tanzanite, Morganite and Rhodochrosite, are richly coloured, great in size and scientifically significant. 

While its impacts are uncertain, it could have caused the world to warm significantly.

The way a volcano is filled with boiling hot magma can help improve forecasts of how it will next erupt.

Rising mountains helped guide the development of multicellular life as they provided nutrients for its development. But that came at a price. 

The rare natural black diamond was on display from October 2021 to April 2022.

Rocks with the potential to hold fossils of Martian life have been identified by NASA's Perseverance rover. 

Discovering the largest Winchcombe meteorite in a field of sheep poo.

The Mars 2020 rover landed near the Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. 

A breakthrough in domestic production could bring down the carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries.

New minerals from the UK are very rare. 

The world's rarest mineral resources are in your hands.

Where will the rover land, and will it find life on Mars?

Even though dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, we know about them thanks to fossils. Watch our animation to find out how dinosaur fossils formed.

Growing up in the Apollo era of the seventies, Prof Sara Russell fantasised about working on space missions.

Dr Susie Maidment shares what it's like to be a dinosaur researcher, how she got into this career and advice for budding palaeontologists.

Pioneering woman palaeontologist to hit cinema screens soon.

To meet UK electric car targets for 2050, we would need just under twice the current annual world cobalt production. 

The face of modern science is young, black, female and ambitious.

Discover the important contributions made by one of London's first woman geologists.

These are the first images from the surface of the far side of the Moon.

They include new dinosaurs, an ancient wombat and a giant shark.

Why have so few dinosaur fossils been found in Ireland? It's all to do with the island's geological history.

It could help us to monitor mining impacts in the ocean.

Researchers have found evidence that suggests Mars once had an ancient ocean and a water cycle similar to Earth's. 

A handy FAQ about meteorites, meteors and other small celestial bodies that Earth encounters in its travels around the Sun. 

Scientists have concluded that there is not enough carbon dioxide on Mars for humans to live on the planet.

To help us tell fact from science fiction, scientists and engineers involved in the ExoMars 2020 program discuss the latest on the search for life on Mars.

New stars and planets are being born all the time, but it's not often that scientists get catch a glimpse of the process.

Amateur astronomers are recording fireballs flying above the UK. 

Before the Earth and Moon, there was a proto-Earth and Theia. Museum planetary science researcher Prof Sara Russell explains the origins of Earth's closest companion.

No bigger than a smartphone, this remarkable rock has layers that tell the story of the working lives and hardships of miners in the 1800s.

A piece of Martian meteorite is being returned to the red planet by NASA.

The touchable, wavy folds of this rock tell a story as old as life on Earth.

Tiny metallic 'whiskers', first spotted by a 14-year-old girl and her father, have been named Mineral of the Year for 2016. They were determined to be an undiscovered mineral species by an international team of scientists.

Minerals may look tough, but getting these crystals from ground to display case needs a very steady hand.

Explore the science behind the Aurora Pyramid of Hope, an unrivalled collection of 296 coloured diamonds.

Dr Caroline Smith sheds light on the secrets this rock holds about the formation of our own planet.

A Museum-led consortium is helping to predict where to find valuable metal ore deposits.

Ancient marine fossils are providing new insights into Earth's biggest mass extinction.

A new approach for analysing minerals in volcanic rocks is helping scientists work out what happens inside a volcano before it erupts.

A flawless blue topaz gemstone - the largest of its kind - will be displayed in the Museum's Minerals gallery from 19 October.

Scientists at the Museum and the University of Exeter have discovered a chemical signature that could help miners home-in on copper deposits.

Vast quantities of 'missing' xenon may be trapped kilometres below Earth's surface.

A special kind of opal that can trap microbes on Earth has been found in a Martian meteorite, suggesting a new target in the search for signs of life on Mars.

Unearth 15 facts about William Smith’s pioneering map, which was published in 1815.

Planetary scientist Dr Penelope Wozniakiewicz is looking for micrometeorites on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean.

Museum researchers are part of an international team that has won a prestigious engineering award for a new laser-based prospecting method.