The night sky across Houston briefly flashed Saturday night, followed by a sonic boom.
It was caused by a meteor, which have become a surprisingly common occurrence recently — with one landing in Ohio on March 17, and another in Germany earlier in the month.
A part of the one that broke up over Texas on its way to the earth’s surface smashed through a roof and attic floor to land in a bedroom of Sherrie James’ home.
“I’m a big sci-fi nut,” she told The Post. “I hoped it wasn’t an egg with something growing inside. I stayed back from it at first. I didn’t want to get radiation or be infected by an alien bug or anything.”
Meteorite hunter Roberto Vargas told The Post the recent spate can be attributed to where the Earth currently is in space.
“We think the Earth is passing through debris fields,” Vargas told The Post, adding, “There are things in space that are floating around. They bang into each other and sometimes pieces break off that are big enough to make it to ground. But more often, they are just shooting stars or fireballs that burn out. Sometimes, it really is just a random coincidence.”
Meteorites typically journey from the asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, and are approximately 4.5 billion years old by the time they reach earth. There have also been reports of meteorites falling in Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas over the last year.
As soon as they land, Vargas springs into action, like when a meteor hit the city of Koblenz in Germany on March 8.
“I was in Germany one day after the meteorite fell,” he said. “I spent four or five days looking, but it was one stone that hit a house and the person living there wasn’t selling. We hunted the area [seeking other fragments] and nobody found anything. So, I came home.”
Days later, news broke about the meteorite in Ohio, and Vargas immediately made the eight-hour drive from his home in Connecticut. He and many other meteorite hunters have been scouring the grounds for fragments of the meteor since. Vargas collects and sells meteorites online.
Carl Dietrich is another hunter who headed to Ohio from South Carolina.
“I’ve been in Ohio since the day after it fell,” he told The Post. “So far, I’ve found two pieces. I’m basically looking at the ground trying to find black rocks.”
Dietrich figures that the “black rocks” in Ohio could sell for some $200 per gram, though he has been too busy looking to spend time researching prices. There are 28 grams in an ounce, meaning value can add up pretty quickly.
In Houston, James is cutting away the portion of her roof that was damaged by the incoming meteorite. She knows it will have value when sold alongside the 2-pound rock that penetrated her house.
The meteorite that landed in James’ 30-year-old daughter’s room was composed mostly of silicate minerals, but likely contains metallic iron in small-scattered grains. To non-geologists, that means it’s just a rock.
However, as a comparison, a meteorite that went through a home in Indonesia in 2020 and weighed 4.6 pounds had an estimated value of $1.85 million. Unfortunately, the owner of the home, a coffin maker, was hoodwinked into selling it for a fraction of its worth.
Meteorites — simply called meteors before they hit the Earth — rarely break through man-made structures.
Those that do are known as “hammer stones” and have enhanced value to collectors, compared to those that simply drop in a field.
“Hammer stones are the most collectible of any meteorites,” Dr. Laurence Garvie, director of the Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University, told The Post. “It’s a huge deal anytime a meteor goes through somebody’s house. However, from the point of science, we don’t care if it lands in a house or a field.
“There are 10 to 20 falls per day, around the world, but 70-something-percent of the world is water. And maybe another 15 percent is inaccessible,” he told The Post.
As for James, she’s still getting over the shock of what’s happened.
“My stomach has been in knots ever since,” she said. “We went out for dinner last night and I couldn’t eat. I have strange people coming up to my house [inquiring about the meteorite]. It just really makes me uncomfortable.”
Vargas, who looks for meteorites and sells them on, uses the term “finders, keepers” to describe who has the rights to any meteorite after it lands; unless it’s on private property, in which case it automatically belongs to the landowner.
Meanwhile, Garvie downplayed any fears the increase in meteorites could have some larger significance, “It just happens that, right now, we have a few in populated regions. It’s purely random.”
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