The ULTIMO Project - Searching for Meteorites

Among the exciting research projects taking place during the BELARE 2024–2025 season is the ULTIMO project, supported by BELSPO (the Belgian Science Policy Office). This ambitious project aims to uncover meteorites scattered across Antarctica’s icy landscapes — relics from space that hold vital clues about the formation and evolution of our solar system.

After arriving at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, the ULTIMO scientists plan and prepare their field campaigns together with the station’s experienced IPF guides. Once in the field, they explore blue ice areas near the Belgica Mountains and Mount Notre-Dame-de-Lorée, where natural processes like ice flow and katabatic winds bring hidden meteorites to the surface.

Each discovered meteorite is carefully documented, bagged, and preserved in frozen conditions to ensure its pristine state. Later, the samples are transported to the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences, where scientists analyze them under controlled conditions.

The project also focuses on micrometeorites—tiny particles only a few micrometers to millimeters in size—that offer a unique window into the early history of the solar system and may even originate from previously unknown asteroids.

Through the ULTIMO project, scientists continue to piece together the cosmic story written in Antarctica’s ancient ice.