Want to earn some cash? Join in on the meteorite search

SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - It lasted 16 seconds in the Texas sky, but left an impression that could change scientific history.

Several East Texans witnessed this meteorite that lit up the sky, and now, Texas Meteorite Hunters from Austin are in town looking for the meteor pieces.

Today is the third day of hunting for the meteors. They started just south of Lake Tawakoni and are spanning the whole area from Wills Point all the way over to Mineola.

It's small, it's black, and their magnetic. "There is value out there laying on the ground, they just need to go out there and find it, " says McCartney Taylor, the Director of Texas Meteorite Labs.

Taylor says there should be several meteors laying on East Texas soil. Taylor says, "It turns out we're hearing reports of five 'BOOM' sounds. So we know we probably have four or five large fragments that are coming down, at least."

It lit up the sky for several seconds, and witnesses are coming forward one by one. "We were reading, so it was pretty quiet, and we just heard 'boom' and then a pause, then boom boom boom," says meteor witness, Chris Pope.

Taylor isn't surprised by the number of people who actually saw the meteorite, "It lit up 80 miles, it was seen from two to three states, and it was a slow fireball, it was a sixteen second fireball, and that is very rare."

But now, the hard part is finding the mysterious out-of-space scientific evidence.

"Often these rocks will come down, there pitch black, and they'll have a chip on it and you'll see the white inside," says Taylor.

Since they have to search by foot, this Austin crew could use all the help they can get.

Taylor says he's willing to give three dollars per gram for any material that is found, so something like that is fist size, can be worth up to a thousand dollars. Taylor says he's anxious to pay forward, all in effort to help meteorite science.

Now, if you find any substance that looks like it could be part of a meteor, and you want the meteorite hunters to check it out, you can find their contact information on our web site.

Just go to our homepage, and click on the big red box, and there you will find the link. Good luck in your treasure hunting!

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