Space race! Meteorites hit Maine, museum offers $25K reward

Someplace in a distant stretch of forest close to Maine’s border with Canada, rocks from space crashed to Earth and could also be scattered throughout the bottom—simply ready to be picked up.

In case you’re the primary to discover a actually large one, a museum says it’s going to pay out a $25,000 reward.

The unusually shiny fireball could possibly be seen in broad daylight round midday Saturday, mentioned Darryl Pitt, chair of the meteorite division on the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel.

NASA mentioned the meteorite fall was noticed on radar—a primary for Maine—and witnesses heard sonic booms.

The museum desires so as to add to its assortment of moon and Mars rocks, Pitt mentioned, so the primary meteorite hunters to ship a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) specimen will declare the $25,000 prize.

In accordance with Pitt, the truth that radar detected the fiery descent assures the meteorites might be discovered on the bottom.

“With extra individuals having an consciousness, the extra individuals will look—and the better the probability of a restoration,” Pitt mentioned Wednesday.

Nonetheless, there isn’t any assure there are any meteorites large enough to say the payout.

NASA mentioned on its web site that the “meteorite lots calculated from the radar signatures vary from 1.59g (0.004 kilos) to 322g (0.7 kilos) though bigger lots could have fallen.”

The chunks of space rock doubtless impacted throughout a swath of floor spanning from the city of Waite, Maine, to Canoose, New Brunswick. In accordance with NASA, the most important specimens shall be strewn on the west finish of the particles subject, closest to Waite—a couple of 3 1/2 hour drive from Portland.

NASA mentioned 4 radar sweeps discovered “signatures per falling meteorites, seen on the time and site reported by eyewitnesses.”

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum maintains an intensive assortment of specimens, together with the most important intact Mars rock on Earth.

The museum is asking meteorite hunters to brush up on what meteorites seem like earlier than looking, in order that they know what they’re in search of, and keep away from personal property except they’ve permission.

Pitt mentioned the museum can be trying to buy another specimens discovered by meteorite hunters. He mentioned the specimens “might simply be value their weight in gold.”

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