AUSTIN -- One day after a heavenly spectacle was spotted streaking across the sky by hundreds of people, scientists and novices alike from Texas to Oklahoma scrambled to learn more about it. Experts say it was a meteorite that was seen by residents in two states.
“It really connects us with the rest of the universe and shows you that there's more than just what we have here in our daily lives here,” said astrophysicist with the Austin Planetarium Torvald Hessel.
Meteors become meteorites once they hit the earth. The metallic rocks can be made up of iron, nickel and a plethora of other elements. They range in size from a grain of sand to the size of a car and can travel anywhere from 10 to 50 miles per second.
Experts believe that because there was a sonic boom heard when Wednesday night’s meteor invaded Earth’s atmosphere, the space rock may have actually reached the ground somewhere around Kaufman or Hunt counties, about an hour east of Dallas.
“Each day, many thousands of meteorites come down. Most of them are tiny, but when something like this comes down now, we take note of what was on the video," added Hessel.
Some meteorite hunters are using radar maps typically used for weather forecasting in hopes of pinpointing the meteorite’s resting place on Earth.
“Very soon, I think we're going to find pieces of them. That happens more and more because we can see it with just radar," said Hessel. "I'm sure people are pouring over those maps right now.”
