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Meteorite hunters fanned out across a wide swath of Ohio in March, hoping to collect fragments of an estimated 7-ton (6,350 kilograms) space rock that crashed into Earth after a dazzling fireball that was seen from hundreds of miles away.
The meteoroid broke apart around 9 a.m. on March 17 over Valley City, a half-hour south of Cleveland, after it sped through the atmosphere at about 45,000 miles (72,420 kilometers) per hour. It caused a sonic boom that rattled buildings and caused fears of an explosion. The fireball was seen from Wisconsin to Maryland, and NASA confirmed it was a meteoroid nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter.
Medina resident December Harris didn’t have to go looking—her cousin and roommate, Ambra Sinclair, found a small black rock they suspect is a meteorite when she was leaving for work. They had heard the sonic boom in the morning but figured it might have been noise from a nearby airport.
Harris said her roommate found the rock in a 4-foot (1.2-meter) area between the garage and the house. She described it as somewhat triangular-shaped, less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter—and “very, very black”—with pits on the surface, grooves, and a melted texture on its exterior.
The sight of the black rock stuck out at Harris’ house. She had heard she should avoid touching a meteorite with bare hands, so they picked it up with a napkin and placed it inside a jar. She looked for a way to authenticate it, but no one answered the NASA phone number she called seven times.
After he learned of the meteor sightings, meteorite collector and dealer Roberto Vargas hit the road to drive for hours from his home in Bristol, Connecticut, to Ohio.
In nearly a decade of collecting, Vargas had found only about 20 meteorites in the wild. He’s among the hunters speculating that there might be a much larger piece out there—perhaps 20 pounds (9 kilograms) or more.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.