A Meteorite Crashed Over The US And Canada & There's A $25K Reward If You Find A Piece Of It
Here's where and what to look for! ☄️
A piece of a meteorite.
A dazzling fireball recently crashed in the United States and Canada, and there's a huge $25,000 reward to the first person who finds a piece of it. Here’s what to know before you go meteor hunting!
In the daylight hours of April 8, 2023, falling meteorites were spotted in the sky in the U.S. territory of Maine and Canadian province of New Brunswick, NASA's Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science division reported.
This day-time phenomenon is regarded as the U.S. state's first "radar-observed" meteorite event, something so rare that the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum is willing to pay some big bucks for anyone — American or Canadian — who can find the first 1-kilogram fragment of it.
NASA's Doppler radar shows a strewn field expanding from the northwestern part of Waite, ME over the United States-Canadian border into Canoose, New Brunswick, Canada, which means there are mostly meteorite fragments of varying sizes to search for here.
According to the University of Alberta, there are four ways to identify a meteorite. You’d need to check for a dense weight, strong magnetism, a black eggshell-like outer crust, and it should exclude any "holes or bubbles" on its exterior. Also, the museum notes meteorite pieces with "advanced botanical matter" did not come from this super recent space event, so they won't count.
If your find passes those four details and you think you have a potential $25,000 prize, you'll next want to make an appointment with the Maine Museum's research lab technologist Al Falster, who will test the specimens over 5-10 business days — it’s important to note you will note be charged for this test.
Happy hunting!
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.