RANGELEY, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Since a fireball was caught on camera last Tuesday morning, some people have descended upon the Rangeley area hoping to find a piece of the meteorite, and cash in on a reward being offered by the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum.
But now the search has stepped up a notch, attracting a planetary science field researcher from Arizona.
Robert Ward hunts for meteorites and has recovered fragments from all over the world. He offers pieces up to laboratories to study and learn more about our solar system; the rest he keeps in a private collection open to visitors.
"I think it's fascinating to touch something that came from outer space, it’s something that came from the solar system and I'm the first human to ever touch it."
Despite the dense woods and lakes surrounding the Rangeley region, Ward is optimistic he'll find something, especially after talking to a few of the locals.
"All of a sudden through the windows a flash of light came through," Brittanie Gragg remembers of Tuesday morning. "We kind of just got up wondering what was going on, it was really bright. Then we heard a rumbling that sounded like thunder."
Ward is focused a few miles into the woods, but much of the area he's hunting is on private property, so he's relying on the patience of landowners.
There is also a time crunch to find a fragment soon and get it into a lab for testing.
"Getting them into the lab as soon as possible is important and finding it as soon as possible is important," said Ward, "because as soon as it rains on these stones, the chemistry inside the stone will change."
Ward could use more witness help, so he's asking anyone who saw the fireball last Tuesday morning to file a report with the American Meteor Society.