West, TX Meteorite hunter donates rare find 6MAR09

Meteorite hunter donates rare find
10:47 AM PST on Friday, March 6, 2009
By KGW Staff
PORTLAND -- A meteorite hunter from Portland is donating part of a recent find to Portland State University.

Video: Fireball during Texas marathon
Meteor fireball in sky
Meteorite donated to PSU

You may have seen the video of the fireball captured during a marathon last month near Austin, Texas.
When Patrick Thompson heard about it, he decided to spend eight days looking for parts of the meteor and he was successful. After searching on foot an average of 25 miles a day, he ended up finding 14 fragments of the meteorite.
For Thompson, it’s a true treasure.
“There's something about it, something about putting your hands on a rock and being the first person to touch it,” he said. “It came from space. These things are floating around up there, every time you see a shooting star, you're kind of reminded of the fact that these things are coming to earth, bombarding us all the time.”
Scientists said because Thompson’s latest meteorite finds are so fresh, the rocks are especially valuable.
Thompson said he plans to sell some of the rocks after donating at least one of them to PSU.