Meteorites From Big Fireball Spark Space Age 'Gold Rush'

SPACE.com Staff

Date: 11 May 2012 Time: 06:15 PM ET

Fragments of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite fall collected by NASA Ames and SETI Institute meteor astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens in the evening of Tuesday April 24, two days after the fall. This was the second recovered find. CREDIT: NASA/Eric James View full size image

Scientists are on an epic treasure hunt for meteorite fragments from a spectacular fireball that lit up the daytime sky over California last month.
The space rocks came from a minivan-size asteroid that plunged through Earth's atmosphere and exploded into a dazzling daytime fireball over California and parts of Nevada on April 22. Meteorite fragments were scattered around Sutter's Mill, an old sawmill in Coloma, Calif. —  the same region where the first gold nugget was found, triggering the Gold Rush of 1848.
Now, NASA has a meteorite rush on its hands, one just as exciting as the California's Gold Rush, the agency said.



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