How to Be a Meteorite Hunter

Who could resist the appeal of having a piece of outer space in your possession, to look at at any time? Our world is part of the universe, of course, but it's natural to differentiate between our mundane earthbound existence and the universe beyond the atmosphere. And meteorites are a sample of that outer universe, many of them older than the Solar System itself.

Cash from Space

Meteorites are rare, so they can bring big money, up to several thousand dollars for a good size rock. I remember seeing some huge specimens offered for sale, many inches across and more, contained in glass cases on the second floor of the Space Store at Kennedy Space Center's Visitor's Complex.

How To Start?

With dollar signs before you, you wonder how to find them?

Study the subject. Buy an inexpensive assortment from dealers, search them out at museums, see what kind of photos are available online, ransack Amazon for reference books. You must be able to recognize meteorites.

Then, track down eyewitness accounts of meteorites falling to earth (meteorites are meteors that have hit the ground).

For older meteorites, you need to do some library research on individual falls or go to a place where meteorites can be found. One of those places is where meteorites have been known to fall before. There, you might find other fragments.

Another hunting ground is a location where the surface has remain undisturbed for some time and desert land is a good example.

What Are You Looking For?

All meteorites have metal content. Not just the nickel-iron meteorite but even the stony variety. A magnet will be helpful to locate iron content, even if finely ground and intermixed. The bigger the magnet, l the better. You can suspend a magnet on a string and watch the magnet's response when you hold it close by. A metal detector is another option. The meteorite tend to be heavier than surrounding rocks.

The good news is that meteorites have a certain uniqueness to them. They tend to be smooth and rusty brown or block rocks. Examine the specimen for a fusion crust, the dark, glassy surface, possible with flow lines, that stems from friction when the meteor slams through the atmosphere towards the ground. The crust may have weathered away, but look for it. They're not always on the surface. Keep in mind meteorites can bury themselves 10 feet or more deep due to impact.

You need to cultivate a sensitivity to anomalies such as rocks at a location where they are geologically out of place. A dry lake bed is an example, or an open field is another. Up to 20 a day can be located in the right time and place.

You need to learn how to authenticate your meteorite, but an outside corroborator is better, such as the American Meteorite Laboratory in Denver, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, at the Center for Meteorite Studies in Arizona. A website for the International Meteorite Collector's Association Inc. lists testing and classifying contacts.

Life on Martian Meteorites

About 500 meteorites strike the surface of the Earth annually. Only five or six are actually seen as they slice through the air. NASA revealed in 2004 that a meteorite found in Antarctica which originated on Mars and was blown into space, perhaps by meteoritic impact, possibly possesses the precursors for life. Only 34 Martian meteorites exist. Others from the Moon have also been found.

Besides the above-mentioned iron-nickel and stony meteorites are the stony-irons. Among the rarest of the stony-iron matrix is a variety called pallasites, spotted with sea-green olivine crystals. Those crystals are a semi-precious gem called peridot. Pallasites can be sliced and polished to make beautiful specimens. Only 61 such pallasite meteorites exist.

There are related alternatives. You don't have to be a meteorite hunter. You can study them and write about them. You can even buy and sell meteorites as does an Ithaca, New York man who makes $1 million a year as a meteorite broker.