Story by Chris Knight • Tuesday, May 16, 2023
The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, home to this Martian meteorite, is looking for more space rocks.© Provided by National Post
An organization in Maine has posted a US$25,000 reward for anyone who can capture and deliver an extraterrestrial that recently fell to Earth. The fugitive has been described as heavy, metallic, possibly magnetic and weighing at least a kilogram.
On April 8, a fireball was seen streaking through the sky during daylight hours over Washington County in Maine. NASA tracked the object and predicted that fragments of the meteorite had landed near the U.S.-Canadian border, likely in a forested region near the towns of Waite, Me., and Canoose, N.B.
The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum then put out a Facebook post, advertising a US$25,000 reward for “the first 1 kilogram specimen found from the event.” The museum is able to test specimens for identification, though it notes there is a cost for this. “Reward is open to our Canadian neighbors as well,” it adds.
The space rock could easily be worth its weight in gold, which is currently selling for about US$6,500. But the rough terrain could hamper the search.
Roberto Vargas, a meteorite hunter who has visited several continents in search of his quarry, told the BBC this week that he’d been to the area twice and plans a third trip. “It’s heavily wooded, it’s super muddy,” he said. The University of Alberta has a useful primer on meteorites to aid any would-be seekers.
The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum is proud of its collection of space rocks, advertising itself as home of “the largest piece of Mars on Earth” – a 14.5 kilo chunk of the Red Planet – as well as an extensive collection of lunar meteorites.
But meteorites are not easy to find. In 2016, the museum advertised a US$20,000 reward for a one-kilo portion of a meteorite that was predicted to have landed near Rangely, Me., south of the Quebec border. No one was able to claim the prize.
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