Although this may appear to be an ordinary rock, it has an extraordinary story to tell.

This is a fragment of the Barwell meteorite. Meteorites are rocks from space that fall to earth.

Have you seen a 'shooting star' before? Shooting stars, or meteors, are what you see when a piece of debris burns up in the earth's atmosphere. This debris is called a meteoroid and it is usually something very tiny, similar to a grain of sand. Very few meteoroids are large enough to survive a trip through the atmosphere, hit the ground and become meteorites. And, even fewer of these meteorites are seen falling to earth. And, even fewer hit buildings, cars or other things made by people.

That's why this rock is so special.

People in the Coventry and Leicestershire area witnessed the Barwell meteorite's descent on Christmas Eve 1965. The burning fireball streaked across the sky and there was a sonic boom when it exploded into thousands of pieces. Like other meteorites, its name comes from the place where it landed -- in this case the village of Barwell in Leicestershire. Fragments of the meteorite hit several buildings and a car. One piece even broke a window and landed in a vase!

The Barwell meteorite is the largest ever to fall in Britain. The museum's piece weighs just over 400 grams, only a portion of the 44 kilograms recovered from Leicestershire.

And, to top it all off, this unassuming little rock is about 4.5 billion years old. That's older than the earth! Meteorites help us learn more about the age and formation of both the solar system and the earth.