[Rockhounds] The Meteorite Hunters Who Trade in Precious Space Debris

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

On January 16th 2018, a bright flash lit up the sky over Michigan,
accompanied by a loud boom. Caught on dash cams
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-42724709/meteor-lights-up-michigan-skies>
 and home surveillance systems
<https://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-giant-fireball-over-michigan-was-visible-from-six-1822143868>,
the meteor briefly turned night to day as it streaked to the ground at
almost 36,000 miles per hour, causing a blast wave equivalent to a minor
earthquake
<https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2018/01/18/bright-fireball-spotted-over-michigan/>
.

By the next morning, local people were out searching the frozen winter
landscape for pieces of fallen material. Then the professionals had
arrived—meteorite
hunters
<https://phys.org/news/2018-01-meteorite-hunters-fragments-michigan-meteor.html>
.
https://gizmodo.com/the-meteorite-hunters-who-trade-in-precious-space-debri-1825113122