Meteoric iron is just what the name sounds like: it’s iron that comes from meteors. For early civilizations, meteoric iron was one of the few available sources of relatively pure iron (that is, prior to when the extraction of iron from ore was discovered). Meteors containing meteoric iron are composed of mostly nickel–iron alloys. Iron meteorites often have a distinct appearance, and they are typically much easier to recognize than other types of meteorites. For this reason, they are discovered more often than other types of meteorites. Iron meteorites actually account for all of the largest meteorites that have been discovered.