There's a new rush on in California's gold rush country. This time, they're prospecting for meteorites.
A minivan-sized meteor blew up over northern California on Sunday morning, and now everyone from NASA scientists to schoolkids is looking for fragments of the fireball – called meteorites once they hit the ground – in the Sierra Nevada towns of Coloma and Lotus.
“People used to pull the gold out of the ground. Now, things fall out of the sky,” NASA research astrophysicist Scott Sandford told CNN affiliate KTXL in Sacramento. “Lucky place, I guess.”
The site where the first meteorites were found Wednesday is just a mile from where gold was first found at Sutter's Mill in Coloma in 1848, CNN affiliate KXTV reported.
Meteorite hunter Robert Ward rushed from his home in Prescott, Arizona, to northern California after hearing of the explosion on Sunday and found fragments in a park. He told CNN affiliate KOVR that these fragments are the first of their kind to fall to Earth since the 1960s.
And they are of extreme importance to scientists, he said.
"There's particles inside this meteorite that predate our sun," Ward said.
"It contains complex amino acids. It contains organic molecules. This thing is just a treasure trove of data for scientists," Ward told KXTV.
NASA scientist Peter Jenniskens found fragments in the park's parking lot, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report. The fragment had been split into smaller pieces after it was run over by a vehicle, he told the Chronicle.
"We need to find more fragments so we can begin to understand how it broke apart and what was inside it," the Chronicle quoted Jenniskens as saying.
"A primitive type of meteorite can tell us an awful lot about the early stages of our solar system, so it is scientific gold in that respect," Sandford told KXTV.
And now that matter from the early universe is scattered over the California landscape.
Local elementary school students Alvin Wolf and Dustin Bunge were among those combing Henningsen Lotus Park on Wednesday.
"We'd probably sell it. Keep it in a bag and if NASA wanted to do stuff on it," they told KXTV.
NASA scientists are organizing a meteorite search for Saturday in Henningsen Lotus Park, KXTL reports.
In the meantime, Ward and others will keep searching.
"There's pieces out there in people's backyards," Ward said. "They just have to get out there and find them."
"It's like a giant easter egg hunt for adults," Randy Freeman of Garden Valley, California, told KXTV.
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I never knew Pierce Brosnan was also a meteorite hunter...
Find it and forge it into a magic sword. We will need it for the coming zombie apocalypse.
Skyrim
Winter is coming!
Magic sword is not a bad idea, that will go right along with the Magic Underwear from the planet Kolub.
That would be at least a +5 sword. Potential sonic damage.
this is the prelude to Godzilla appearing.......know it, believe it.
everyone knows the universe is only 6000 yrs old. duh
If a meterorite falls on a fundie in the middle of the woods and nobody sentient is around, does it make a sound?
I think J was being sarcastic. I don't think you were.
i bet there is a homeless man in hollywood that is yelling SEE! I TOLD YOU THE WORLD WOULD END BY FIRE! YOU WILL ALL BE JUDGED!
How do you date this thing? Carbon dating likely does not apply here!
Turn it over and look at the copyright.
Find the product label, and just scan it.
Why wouldn't Carbon Dating apply? Carbon is one of the primary components of most meteorites, isn't it?
Uranium dating, half life is much longer and that is an understatement!
This means that dragons have risen anew!
Thars GOLD in them thar Meteorites.
The original statement (in proper english) was something like: "There's gold thar in them hills". We never say "them thar"... that thar is a igranunt myth...
They are worth money.
Come now, Ned, don't lose your head.
Henny Penny was right!
Little hint Robert, the planets are the same age as the sun. It would do you good to get into THE BOOK rather than other's books.
Meteorite is like a box of chocolate.
"And they are of extreme importance to scientists, he said.
"There's particles inside this meteorite that predate our sun," Ward said.
"It contains complex amino acids. It contains organic molecules. This thing is just a treasure trove of data for scientists," Ward told KXTV."
You just gave some loser with no life and a VW Microbus credibility. He's trying to win the lotto by finding a space rock.
Without having found the meteorite, how do we report this claim as accurate? You can't know, and you should be skeptical of his claims that the mysteries of the universe will be unveiled with his unscientific digging in the desert.
This is why CNN should NEVER report science articles. Failed writers who pretend to be journalists shouldn't write out of their areas of knowledge.
"Local elementary school students Alvin Wolf and Dustin Bunge were among those combing Henningsen Lotus Park on Wednesday.
'We'd probably sell it....'"
I'll bet your parents are proud.