There are ways to tell if a stone you've found could be part of the Washington County meteorite event on Saturday, April 8. “Depending upon the type of meteorite this is,” said Darryl Pitt, Chair of the Meteorite Division at the Museum, “specimens could easily be worth their weight in gold.” Seen here is one piece of the 2013 Cheylabinsk meteor event. Photo by Nata74.

Apr 11,2023

Maine museum offers $25,000 reward for large Washington County meteorite

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Following Saturday’s meteorite event over Washington County and New Brunswick, Canada, the Maine Mineral and Gem Society is offering a $25,000 reward for the first one-kilogram meteorite recovered.

According to NASA’s Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science (ARES) lab, radar data picked up almost five minutes of meteorite falls into Washington County and New Brunswick just before noon on Saturday, April 8.

“Meteorite masses calculated from the radar signatures range from 1.59g to 322g, although larger masses may have fallen,” read the press release.

Using imperial measurements, NASA’s radar signatures picked up meteorites weighing between half an ounce and .71 pounds. But larger pieces could be out there, and the museum will also pay for other specimens.

“Depending upon the type of meteorite this is,” said Darryl Pitt, Chair of the Meteorite Division at the Museum, “specimens could easily be worth their weight in gold.”

According to NASA, one can expect to recover meteorites in a one-mile-wide strewn field that extends from just north of Waite in an elliptical strewn field directly to — and over — the Canadian border over the outpost of Canoose, New Brunswick. The greatest likelihood of finding specimens will be directly west of Canoose, straddling the border.

Speaking to this newspaper on Saturday afternoon, UMaine Versant Power Astronomy Center Director Shawn Laatsch said meteorites are safe to pick up, and there are ways to tell if you’ve found a meteorite versus an ordinary rock.

“Check and see, is it very dense? Heavier than a normal rock? Is it magnetic? A lot of the meteorites have a good amount of iron in them,” said Laatsch. “Those are preliminary tests.”

If your discovery passes those tests, you may want to deliver it to the experts for final verification.

“The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel has one of the largest meteorite collections in North America,” said Laatsch. “They’re exceptional.”

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel is home to the single largest specimens of both the Moon and Mars on Earth. You can learn more by visiting https://mainemineralmuseum.org/.