A meteor streaked across the Texas sky this weekend. Here’s where you can look for meteorites in its wake.
If you heard a loud rumble across the Lone Star State this weekend, your ears weren’t playing tricks on you: That sonic boom was actually a 26-ton meteor crashing into the ground after streaking across the sky. People from San Antonio to Houston reported hearing and seeing the celestial rock, and now meteorite enthusiasts are on the hunt to find fragments of it after it broke apart mid-descent. NASA released a statement explaining what happened—the organization’s preliminary report read, in part, “The disintegration of the asteroidal fragment – which weigh about a ton with a diameter of 3 feet – unleashed an energy of 26 tons of TNT, creating a pressure wave that propagated to the ground and causing the booms heard by some in the area. Doppler weather radar shows meteorites falling to the ground between Willowbrook and Northgate Crossing.”
A Cypress Station woman, Sherrie James, said that one of the fragments came crashing through the roof of her family’s home. After they heard a booming sound, she went to investigate. “So, I come out here and look. There’s a hole in the ceiling, big dent in the floor, another little piece in the ceiling, and a big rock on the floor, and it just scared me to death,” she told ABC 13. The James residence will, unfortunately, need to undergo some repairs now. As of writing, they seem to be the only ones who have reported structural damage in the meteor’s wake.
For those who were fortunate enough to stay out of the rock’s path but would like to try to find a piece of meteorite to take home for themselves, The Astromaterials Research & Exploration Sciences (ARES) division of NASA, as well as MyRadar Weather, put together maps estimating where the fragments may have fallen around Houston. ARES noted that, “The — weather radars show signatures of falling meteorites over…about an eight-minute period,” meaning there’s a fair stretch of land you’ll have to work through if you’re committed to the cause.
Where to look for meteorites
Meteor chasers have been honing in on a stretch of land between Imperial Oaks and Champion Forrest in an effort to retrieve meteorites after this weekend’s dazzling event. According to NASA’s ARES team and MyRadar Weather, you may find success dredging up a few small fragments in Collins Park, Meyer Park, and at the intersection between Louetta Road and Stuebner Airline Road. For slightly larger pieces, FM 1960, Klein, Loutta Road, Bammel, and Cypresswood Drive are good places to start. The organizations have noted that big meteorites are less likely and maybe even improbable to find, but if they were going to be found anywhere, it would be in the following spots:
- Rayford Road
- The Imperial Oaks neighborhood
- Spring Creek
- Highway 99/I-45 Highway Interchange
- Dennis Johnson Park
Happy hunting!
