Meteorite hunters have fanned out across Ohio following the spectacular disintegration of an estimated 6,350-kilogramme space rock earlier this week. The celestial visitor, which caused a dazzling fireball visible for hundreds of miles, broke apart around 9 am on Tuesday over Valley City, south of Cleveland.
Travelling at approximately 72,420 kilometres per hour, the meteoroid, confirmed by NASA to be nearly 1.8 metres in diameter, generated a sonic boom that rattled buildings and sparked fears of an explosion across states from Wisconsin to Maryland.
While many are actively searching, one resident had a piece delivered almost to her doorstep. Ambra Sinclair, roommate to Medina resident December Harris, discovered a small black rock they suspect is a meteorite as she left for work. The pair had heard the sonic boom on Tuesday morning but initially attributed it to noise from a nearby airport.
Ms Harris recounted that the rock was found late Wednesday morning in a 1.2-metre area between their garage and house. She described the fragment as “somewhat triangular shaped, less than 5 centimetres in diameter — and “very, very black,” with pits on the surface, grooves and a melted texture on its exterior.”
Meteoroids experience immense stress and heat as they compress Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, causing them to melt and break apart. The distinctive black rock stood out starkly at Ms Harris’s home, a tangible piece of the dramatic cosmic event.
“I’ve got a cleaned-off driveway,” said Harris, 70, a retired business owner. “There’s nothing like this around.”
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. Now she’s looking for a way to authenticate it — no one answered the NASA phone number she called seven times.
“To us, me and my cousin, we have a strong faith in God,” Harris said. “We’re like, ‘God just dropped it out of heaven.’”
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.
He drove into the night and started his search shortly after sunrise Wednesday. It was nearly sundown though before he got lucky and came across a suspected meteorite. At noon on Thursday he located a second piece, which he said is “100% fusion crusted,” a museum-quality specimen he plans to keep.
It was enough to make the 40-year-old former mental health therapist wax poetic.
“It was a massive event — the shock waves, the sonic booms,” he said, taking a break from his search to do a phone interview. “This is a beauty of a fall.”
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.
Vargas said there’s a mix of variables that will factor into how long he stays in the area.
“It depends on how many stones are found,” he said. “Do they continue to be found? And what the situation is like with huntable ground. There’s a lot of private property around here.”
Gabe Leidy thought maybe something had hit his house in North Ridgeville when he heard the boom, then went searching for pieces after work Wednesday afternoon.
The 39-year-old who works in supply chain management went to the Sharon Center area, where he thought a black space rock might stand out. That’s when he found “something that looks very, very, very much like a meteorite.”
Some people have already offered him hundreds or even thousands of dollars for it, but Leidy wants to hang on to it. For now it’s in a cupboard, but he imagines that one day it might end up in a museum.
“My goal here was just to find a memento that I can remember this probably once-in-a-lifetime event by,” he said.
