Likely Meteor Fragment Found in Wisconsin

An apparent fragment from a meteor that lit up Midwestern skies this week has been recovered in southwestern Wisconsin, scientists said Friday.

The fragment weighs 7.5 grams, or 0.3 pounds, and is about the size of an unshelled peanut, said John Valley, a geology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who briefly studied the rock.

"This is very exciting," Valley said. "We want people to know what it looks like so hopefully more fragments can be found."

The rock contains white crystals surrounded by a gray matrix, Valley said.

One reason scientists are convinced it's legitimate is it has a so-called fusion crust, a paper-thin blackened coating that results when a meteor superheats as it speeds through the atmosphere.

"Rocks on earth just don't look this way," Valley said.

The man who found the fragment lent it to UW-Madison scientists for a two-hour analysis. The man came forward on the condition he not be identified, said Valley, who would only say the man's hometown is west of Dodgeville, in the southwest corner of the state. The find was first reported by television station WKOW in Madison.

The man was home Wednesday night when he heard the rock bounce harmlessly off his shed, said Brooke Norsted, the assistant director of the UW-Madison geology museum. He saw a bright flash and heard the thump but assumed it was lightning and hail, she said.

The meteor had streaked across the sky Wednesday about 10 p.m. It was visible from southern Wisconsin and northern Iowa to central Missouri.

A number of amateur videos, including a police dashboard camera, captured the brief event. Videos show the object streaking toward the ground, then swelling and brightening in an apparent explosion before disappearing.

If the meteor did explode, it could have produced hundreds or even thousands of fragments. Valley said the pieces could be scattered over a broad swath, in a belt perhaps extending some 20 miles.

"There are people descending on southwest Wisconsin right now. It's like a gold rush," Valley said. "These things can be valuable."

Eric Twelker, the owner of Meteorite Market in Juneau, Alaska, said meteorites' value depends on numerous factors.

Those that land in North America and Europe are worth more because there are more buyers in those areas, and they're often willing to pay a premium for something recovered locally, he said. Prices also go up when a meteor produces fewer recoverable fragments.

If the fragment recovered this week is the only one ever found from this meteor it could be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars per gram, Twelker said. It's more likely the meteor produced thousands of fragments, he said, which could sell for $30 to $40 per gram.

"People will come from all over world to look for these meteorites," he predicted. "You go out and collect 30 or 40 or 50 pieces and the potential to make real money is there."

This is the 13th known meteorite that landed in Wisconsin, Norsted said. Seven of the other 12 are on display in the UW-Madison museum and range from the size of a matchbox to the size of an adult hand, she said.

UW-Madison scientists did some preliminary tests on their sample Friday. They hope eventually to do chemical tests, which would allow them to determine the meteor's chemical composition. The anonymous finder would need to lend them his sample again or for someone who finds another fragment to come forward.

Chemical tests also could provide clues as to the meteor's age and origin.

Valley said the preliminary tests suggested it wasn't part of a comet, as recent meteors have been. It instead appears to have come from the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, he said.

That's part of the reason meteors seem to capture people's fascination, Valley said.

"One, they're rare, and two, they're older than anything on Earth," he said. "They tell us about places none of us will ever travel to and a time that is beyond our understanding."