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© WFAAWayne and Darla Janca of Roanoke believe they discovered fragments of a meteor that fell to earth near their home on January 24, 2014


It started as the search for a needle in an interplanetary haystack.

Could Wayne and Darla Janca of Roanoke find what came flying through the sky on Friday night?

They and untold others saw the meteor on their drive home from dinner in Southlake. Some even captured the glowing meteor on video as it shot through the atmosphere.

"We both looked at each other and said, 'That looks like it hit pretty close to home," said Darla Janca.

After a good night's sleep, Wayne and his wife followed their hunch.

"The next day we went out and were looking in the dirt, seeing if we can find anything," Wayne said. "Right before we gave up, I looked down at my foot and there it was! It looked like liquid metal melted into the ground."

The discovery was made in Roanoke, not far from the Jancas' home. But what they dug up may have traveled millions of miles to get here.

"We started digging down and found more and more and more and found a pretty good handful of it," Wayne said.

The couple immediately felt this was part of the meteorite. To test their theory, Darla went online.

"I read how to do a test to see if you found one and it was using a magnet - and sure enough, we got a magnet, and it did adhere to that magnet real quick," she said.

The Jancas plan to have their discovery checked out by local experts at TCU's Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery in Fort Worth.

In the meantime, they're enjoying the thought of their out-of-this-world find.

"It's a neat story to catch a falling star!" Wayne said.
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© TXCODENINJA / YouTube
Meteor sighting

A video posted by TXCODENINJA on YouTube shows what appears to be a falling meteor (indicated by the yellow arrow) on January 24, 2014.