The fireball that lit the sky over Valley City, Ohio, and produced a sonic boom that was heard across the region has kicked off a new round of local searching for space-rock fragments, with hobbyists and dealers fanning out over huntable ground.
Meteorite hunters said they are trying to recover pieces after the meteoroid broke apart around 9 a.m. Tuesday, when it traveled through the atmosphere at about 45,000 miles (72,420 kilometers) per hour. The event rattled buildings, raised fears of an explosion and drew reports of the bright fireball being seen from hundreds of miles away, from Wisconsin to Maryland.
NASA confirmed to meteorite hunters that the object was a meteoroid nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter. Hunters also described the object as roughly estimated at about 7 tons, with the meteoroid’s breakup and the resulting shock waves contributing to the noise and the concern for what had happened on the ground.
In Medina, resident December Harris said her search never started as a hunt at all. She told reporters that her roommate and cousin, Ambra Sinclair, found a small black rock they suspect is a meteorite while Sinclair was leaving for work.
Harris said Sinclair located the fragment late Wednesday morning in a 4-foot (1.2-meter) area between the garage and the house. She described it as somewhat triangular, less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, and “very, very black,” with pits, grooves and a melted texture on its exterior.
Harris said she picked up the rock with a napkin rather than touching it with bare hands, then put it inside a jar. She said she has been trying to authenticate it and called NASA’s phone number seven times without getting an answer.
Another hunter, Roberto Vargas, drove from his home in Bristol, Connecticut, toward Ohio after hearing about the meteor sightings. He said he searched shortly after sunrise Wednesday and that it was nearly sundown before he found a suspected meteorite.
Vargas said that on Thursday at noon he located a second piece he described as “100% fusion crusted,” calling it a museum-quality specimen that he plans to keep. He said he had found only about 20 meteorites in the wild during nearly a decade of collecting, and he noted that others in the community speculate there could be a much larger remnant still out there—possibly a piece weighing 20 pounds (9 kilograms) or more.
Gabe Leidy said he went looking after hearing the sonic boom when he believed it may have hit his house in North Ridgeville. Leidy said he went to the Sharon Center area after work Wednesday and found what he described as “something that looks very, very, very much like a meteorite.”
Leidy said people had offered him hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the suspected fragment, but he wants to keep it. For now, he said it is stored in a cupboard, and he described his goal as finding a memento of an event he expects may happen only once in his lifetime.
“I’ve got a cleaned-off driveway,” Harris said. “There’s nothing like this around.” She said the moment felt as if it came straight from above, adding: “God just dropped it out of heaven.”
Vargas also described the recovery as a rare, high-energy experience in meteorite hunting. “It was a massive event — the shock waves, the sonic booms,” he said, calling it “a beauty of a fall.” He said how long he stays in the area may depend on how many stones are found and on whether there is huntable ground, noting there is a lot of private property around.
Harris and other hunters said they will keep searching for additional fragments while trying to confirm whether the pieces they have found are indeed meteorites.
Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.