David Wacker and his siblings Gerry, Beverly and Michael — all UCLA alumni — have donated 46 acres of land in Kern County to the UCLA Meteorite Collection.

The Meteorite Collection, which is the largest of its kind in the state, and UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences will host a reception for the Wackers this Friday afternoon.

In late November 2014, UCLA meteorite experts organized a search for meteorites in Kern County a few months after the university  purchased a meteoritic stone that had been discovered in southern Kern County around 1980 near the edge of a dry lake, located about 10 miles north of Edwards Air Force Base. Because of the shape of the stone it appeared probable that the meteorite had broken up while passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. So the UCLA scientists decided to search for additional fragments and invited the landowners to join them.

David Wacker replied that he and his three siblings would like to join in the hunt for meteorites, and they searched about 80 acres and came up emptyhanded. However, he later said he would give UCLA the 46 acres of land they owned in Kern County. The title was transferred to UCLA last January.

John Wasson, the gallery’s curator and a professor emeritus of geochemistry and chemistry in the UCLA College, said the generous donation will be very useful to the gallery. The gift is part of the $4.2 billion UCLA Centennial Campaign, which is scheduled to conclude in December 2019 during UCLA’s 100th anniversary year.

Meteorites are rocks that have landed on the Earth's surface after being ejected from asteroids, planets or the moon. The vast majority come from asteroids. The collection houses nearly 1,500 meteorites that illustrate the scientific processes that were active in the early solar system. About 100 of them are on display.

The collection is housed in room 3697 of the UCLA Geology Building, which is located just southwest of the corner of Hilgard and Westholme avenues (map). The gallery is open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. when it is staffed with volunteer docents.