When a fireball from space crashed into the rocky plains of southeast Morocco in September, Mohamed Benitjit topped up the credit on his mobile phone and packed a bag with a tiny magnet and a few clothes, ready to set off in search of meteorite fragments.
“I just need to know where it landed,” the 52-year-old merchant said in Enzala, a village at the foothills of the Atlas mountains. “Information is everything in our trade. It doesn’t come easy since whoever finds something likes to keep it for himself.”