At about midday last Saturday, a meteorite fell from the sky and crashed into northern Maine, near the Canadian border. This meteorite made quite an entrance, lighting up the daytime sky and creating several sonic booms. Had this come down at night, it would have truly been a spectacle. This meteorite was the first time a weather radar observed a meteorite.
With several sonic booms being heard, the meteorite likely broke up into at least several fragments prior to striking the ground. The director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center at the University of Maine said the meteorite was likely a bolide, which is a large and exceptionally bright meteor.
Earlier this week, it was said to be extremely difficult for anyone to fine pieces of the meteorite as there are likely many small fragments that will be difficult to tell what it is unless you are trained. I suspected some meteorite hunters would head out to find pieces to keep.
However, the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel has upped the motivation to get out there to search. The museum is offering the first person to bring them a meteorite that weighs at least one kilogram $25,000. With the meteor being bright enough to have been seen in the middle of the day and large enough to be picked up on radar, the museum is confident that someone will find something.
Meteorites will most likely be found in a one mile strip in the small town of Waite, Maine, however, fragments could have spread around due to high winds. Some fragments may have even been carried into Canada, according to NASA. The town's only business, a small general store, has reported people stopping in to ask about the space rock. Residents have reported "unfamiliar" cars parked off the sides of the roads. People are out there hunting.
As of Friday morning, nothing has been reported to be recovered yet.
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