Meteorite hunters race to Ohio after fireball bursts over state: ‘Outer space, man’

At last, a reason to visit Ohio.

Meteorite hunters are descending on the Buckeye State after a huge meteor streaked across the sky and rained down interplanetary fragments.

The space rock — a six-foot-wide, seven-ton behemoth — burst across northeast Ohio around 9 a.m. Tuesday, creating a shockwave and sonic boom that could be heard as far away as New York.

A meteorite chunk Roberto Vargas found after the fireball exploded over Ohio on Tuesday morning. cleveland19

After the spectacle, meteorite hunters from across the US flocked to Ohio for the opportunity to get their hands on one of the rarest rocks on Earth.

“These things are from outer space, man,” hunter Roberto Vargas told WOIO. “The rock that I had picked up yesterday had only been on earth for like a day.”

Vargas heard the boom from his Connecticut home and immediately “started packing” — then hit the road and met up with fellow meteorite hunter Carl Deitrich, who had travelled up from South Carolina.

“Driving around looking for piles of grayish rocks,” Dietrich said, describing their search, which yielded piles of scorched space dust and even a chunk about an inch across. “It hit in a parking lot and you just see a pile on the ground.”

“Basically what I’d be looking for are black rocks,” added Vargas. “I’m probably looking for pieces, anywhere from 1 inch to 2 inches.”

Others brought equipment like metal detectors to help in their hunt, which spread for miles across Medina County where the falling meteor broke up and dispersed after travelling at about 45,000 miles per hour.

The meteor burst over northeast Ohio in broad daylight on Tuesday morning, with the explosion heard for miles. AP

Most meteors burn up completely in the atmosphere, with fragments rarely reaching the ground. Only 14 confirmed meteors have ever been located in Ohio, though that number is likely to increase after findings from Tuesday’s fall are confirmed.

And the space rocks are incredibly valuable for scientists, who rarely have the opportunity to study new arrivals from beyond Earth.

“Meteorites are the only field of astronomy that you can actually hold in your hand and touch. It’s a physical way to be connected to the stars,” American Meteor Society operations manager Mike Hankey told WKYC.

“This is the largest one I’ve ever seen reported on both the radar and through the NASA estimates,” he added. “There’s a huge rush when you find it.”

Some meteors can fetch big bucks.

A museum in Maine offered $25,000 for fragments of a meteor that streaked over New England in 2023.

In 2018, a Michigan man discovered that a 22-pound meteorite he’d used at his old farmhouse for decades was worth about $100,000.