Meteorite Landings API

About the Meteorite Landings API

Meteorites works by retrieving meteorite data from various reliable sources and providing it in a structured format. You can expect accurate and up-to-date information.

What people use it for

Planetarium Exhibit Displays

Museum curators query recorded falls by specimen name to present visitors with the classification, weight, and discovery year of famous space rocks.

Science Coursework Modules

When designing astronomy curricula, educators filter cataloged specimens by mass to illustrate how meteor size distributions vary across recorded recovery events.

Geology Sample Cataloging

To catalog collected specimens, geology labs match field finds against recorded meteorite classifications and known mass thresholds.

Astronomy Reference Portals

Stargazing databases look up historical strike records by name to provide readers with the confirmed weight, type, and fall date of recovered specimens.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/meteorites

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

Optional

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/meteorites?name=Allende&mass=100&year=1969" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/meteorites

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "count": 1,
    "filteredOn": [
      "name"
    ],
    "meteors": [
      {
        "name": "Allende",
        "recclass": "CV3",
        "mass": "2000000",
        "year": "1969",
        "geolocation": {
          "type": "Point",
          "coordinates": [
            -105.31667,
            26.96667
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 2 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Meteorite Landings form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Meteorite Landings API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1