TULSA, Okla. — A group of meteor enthusiasts has spent days searching for fragments of a meteor that streaked across the Green Country skies last week.
Multiple surveillance videos captured the meteor's sights and sounds early Friday morning. People posted videos reporting seeing a large fireball and accompanying sonic boom.
Since then, professional meteorite hunter Roberto Vargas and a group of meteor enthusiasts have spent days searching for pieces.
“This right here is the newest visitor to Earth, it’s the Muskogee Meteorite," Vargas said.
MORE >>> Meteor lights up the sky, sonic boom wakes up some in Green Country
2 News Oklahoma joined the group Monday as they continued searching for fragments of the meteor.
“The Doppler radar said there should be here… We’re out here hunting…we’re finding rocks," said meteorite hunter Steve Arnold.
Vargas is among the few who have found a piece of Thursday's meteor.
“I looked down, and I just couldn’t believe it," Vargas said. "I just bent over and picked it up and sure it was a meteorite."
Mike Hankey with the American Meteor Society said only 1,300 meteorites have been recovered in the history of mankind.
He said it's the story hidden inside the rocks that sets them apart.
“When you crack a meteorite open, you look at it inside it’s like literally going back to the very origins of our solar system," Hankey said. “A lot of them will be broken down a little bit, which you can see the inside, which will be a grey cement color, a magnet will stick to them."
Vargas said that based on the video evidence and radar information they've collected, they believe the meteor could have ranged in size from a basketball to a grocery shopping cart before it broke apart in the atmosphere.
“It’s really the only aspect of astronomy that you can hold in your hand that you can put under a microscope, or you can study in a lab and that tells us what these planets are made out of, or what are these asteroids made out of," Hankey said.
Arnold said it's possible there could be hundreds of meteorites in Muskogee and the surrounding area. That's why they will continue their search.
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