Several scientists plan to spend the next few weeks snowmobiling across the ice sheets of Antarctica. It’s not a vacation or an extreme-sports event. Instead, they’ll be hunting for meteorites – bits of space rock sitting atop the ice.

About two-thirds of all the meteorites found on Earth have been recovered from Antarctica. They aren’t more common there, but they are easier to find. There aren’t many Earth rocks on the ice, and meteorites look different. Many of them have been frozen below the surface, then exposed as the ice vaporized. Others are exposed when ice piles up at the base of mountains.

Scientists find about a thousand meteorites every southern summer, during expeditions that last a few weeks. But a recent study says that pace might not hold in the decades ahead – a result of our changing climate.

Under warmer conditions, the dark meteorites could heat and melt the ice below them – then sink into the ice, where they’d be lost from view. Under the temperatures predicted for the rest of the 21st century, about a quarter of the Antarctic meteorites could drop from view by 2050. And three-quarters could be hidden by the end of the century.

Scientists say there may be hundreds of thousands of meteorites sitting atop the ice today. But future expeditions might have to spend more time on their snowmobiles to find them.

We’ll have more about Antarctic meteorites tomorrow.

Script by Damond Benningfield