There’s a reward for pieces of space rock, after a fireball over Maine

The FIRST FIRST METHETABITE SEEN IN MEASUREMENT AND THE MASSIVE COSMOLOGICAL EMISSION OF MAINERAL TYPE

The first 1 kilogram of meteorite that is found at the museum is offered for $25,000, and the museum is willing to purchase more meteorites.

This was the first meteorite seen in Maine, says NASA. There were loud sonic booms in Maine and a bright fireball in Canada before noon on Saturday.

The Natural History museum in London houses an extremely rare meteorite that fell in the United Kingdom in 2021 and turned out to be a type of space rock.

Using radar, NASA was able to detect that meteorites had fallen and calculate where they may have landed, noting that strong winds of up to 100 miles per hour carried smaller ones across the border into Canada.

Meteorites tend to be heavy and magnetic, with shallow depressions (but not holes) on their surface and densely packed interiors. They can be irregular in shape, and usually have a smooth exterior.

Pitt said that he was cautiously optimistic because there was more information available from radar data and that he expected a good response from meteorite hunters.

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum noted in a Wednesday Facebook post that fireballs are usually seen at night, when their light contrasts against the dark sky.

The mile wide field is from just north of Waite, Maine, to Canoose. And the mineral museum is encouraging people to go explore it.

The chair of the museum’s meteorite division said on Monday that the existence of positive Doppler radar returns assures them there are meteorites waiting to be found.

The museum says the most likely locations for specimen are west of Canoose straddling the border, and also open to Canadians.

For one, the museum’s research lab technologist is able to test specimens for identification by appointment only, a process that costs money and takes five-10 business days to yield results.

The museum says first time hunters should do some research online so they know what they’re looking for.

What should hunters look for in meteorite fossils? An expert’s report from the Meteorite Discovery Museum at the University of Alberta

Pitt told CNN that only eight to 10 out of the hundreds of meteorites seen falling to Earth each year are recovered. The museum offered a $20,000 reward for meteorite fragments in 2016 but didn’t get any.

So what should meteorite hunters look for? The museum says chemical composition testing is the most definitive way to know what they’ve found, but there are clues that can point them in the right direction.

The experts at the University of Alberta recommend four tests, one of which involves a refrigerator magnet to measure magnetism.

It’s possible that the rock is a meteorite. The museum warns that some of the specimen are not from the fireball event.