Have I found a meteorite ??

I agree with Tylerknight. The tiny airholes are a dead giveaway that it is not from space. Gotta have the "thumbprints"!

We used to hunt meteorites, and would take what we found to TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas. They have a wonderful meteorite museum (Monnig museum) and a very friendly geology department. To our dismay, even the ones that were highly magnetic were not from space. After seeing many meteorites up close, they become easier to identify.

If you live in a part of the world that gets more moisture in the form of rain, fog, etc., then meteorites will not last too long out in the open, as they rust away.

Keep hunting, though....it's a lot of fun, and you never know what you'll find!

I think no. Probably that is just slag from a smelter. The first time I found that, I also thought it was a meteorite.

Originally posted by drneville
Hope you fellows can help

If you're unsure, by all means ask an expert at a local university.

This guide may help, and it suggests that the porous nature indicates a likely terrestrial origin as others have suggested:

Do You Think You May Have Found a Meteorite?

I hope that helps. Oh and don't cut it up, in case it is one, it's better to keep it in one piece.

I almost got hit in the head by a small one leaving a college class several years ago; I heard this weird zip like noise cutting air and instinctually ducked even though it probably would have hit me if it was on course with my head at the same time I ducked thwack! Right into a tree I was walking under and klunk splash on the ground in a rain puddle at my feet. I picked it up It was pretty warm to the touch and heavier than expected for the size...I carried it back into the building and showed it to my engineering professor, he said they got them a lot for some reason and about 2 years earlier one about the size of a basket ball slammed through one of the covered walkway rooves.

The one that came close to hitting me is possibly a pretty standard iron pyrite type of meteorite; If it were perfectly round it would be about the size of a golf ball, I still have it somewhere.

I also have one I found that looks very similar to yours...not all meteorites look the same as there are several types of them with classifications falling under each of those. I would say yours if it is a meteorite is probably a type of tektite.

reply to post by BigBrotherDarkness


Your post reminds me of something that happened to me around 35 years ago...i was 11 years old.

I was walking along a wall and suddenly whack!!! something hit me hard on the side of the head...I was in shock to say the least...I though t i had been shot by a air gun...all these years i still believed it was a airgun....now not so sure...I just cried a lot and ran home to my mama...

the nearest place i could have been shot from was probably about 250 m away so it was either a Good shot from a powerful illegal) air weapon or a lucky shot as our air weapons in the UK dont go above the 12lb mark......well they didn't back then, nowadays with the invention of the Co2 canister type, some of those can be increased to around 30/40 lb's....deadly.

Mybe, just maybe i was hit by a space rock....awesome...


My new sig will be... "once skelped by a space rock"

reply to post by Soloprotocol


Some air pumped bb guns could be pumped way past the recommended pumps, I had one recommended max 10 pumps but you could keep pumping compressing that air...at 50 pumps my bb gun could go through a car door and windshield at 20 feet don't ask me how I know that; my ass still hurts 30 years later...the excuse of "what its a junk car?" Didn't register as a logical argument.

But who knows; I almost got bit by a space bullet, pretty sure it would have killed me though if it actually hit me, that thing was going very fast.

reply to post by BigBrotherDarkness

you are correct..I had a daisy Power something or other that i pumped the crap out of.....wasn't the most accurate though at long distances, but could, as you say....it was just a junk car... I think i can rmember it going through glass bottles without actually breaking the bottle...just a clean entry and exit wound...though i may have dreamt this.. I swapped that gun for some Ronnie james Dio albums i think..

Guys don't get his hopes up. It is 100% not a meteorite. I don't want to sound cynical, but I have been to several meteorite workshops and had the chance to handle many types of real ones and there are telltale signs that make this 100% not a real meteorite. A meteorite cannot have airbubbles like that that is the so called "smoking gun" there is no air in space, and those bubbles and holes are the air leaving the rock durring a heating or cooling phase in its life here on earth. I wish I could tell you it was real but it isn't. Obviously take it to a university or museum for another opinion, but I will save you the time and embarrassment as they get thousands of people a year bringing in pieces like yours. Check the link that was posted above showing commonly mistaken rocks and yours fits right in with possible hematite or magnetite.

Sorry for the let down! keep up the good hunt!

reply to post by Tylerknight


Where's the meteorite from, is it a Diablo? thx

I can't help myself here guys. But I'm curious if you got any "meteor s**t" on you when you handled it? And your best bet is to "take it up to the college" to the department of meteors. Whatever you do, when the green stuff starts growing all over you, do not jump into a hot bath!

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Fresh space debris is suppose to be toxic, last I heard...I am one of those types that doesn't care, I have experienced enough here...nothing else needed, nothing desired enough to cling or be scared of losing...until then I'll continue forward til whatever takes me out. King should have gotten some kind of reward for that acting...not sure if he meant that part to be a comedy; but it always get me rolling.

reply to post by balanc3


Actually, if you can believe it I picked it up at an estate sale! It was in a box of old records I bought and it was sitting in the bottom haha. Lucky me! I send it to the museum right away as I knew it was probably real but they confirmed it right away as an Iron meteorite!

Mmmm... does look like this one...
blogs.nature.com...