A 45,000 mph meteor for the ages made a captivating boom in Ohio and PennsylvaniaTuesday afternoon.
The streak of light and the sound of the meteor startled many people, including Keone Knapp in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Knapp said his whole house shook.
"I was actually in my bed just watching YouTube on the laptop and the house started shaking and I hear, *Boosh*, *boom*, *boom*, and a couple of aftershocks," Knapp said.
After learning a meteor broke through the atmosphere, Knapp decided to drive one and a half hours to River Styx Park near Wadsworth, Ohio, and start hunting.
Scientists believe the space rock, estimated to be six feet in diameter, fragmented over Medina County, which is in Northeast Ohio, making the park a potential hot spot for meteorites.
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Knapp came equipped.
"This belt here, it's got magnets in it, rare earth magnets and it's and you can use this to authenticate if it's actually a meteorite," he said.
Another curious visitor, Steven Sladek from the Cleveland neighborhood of Tremont, was asked why there was such fascination.
"It's just something coming from space, you know," Sladek said.
Sladek navigated the park, carrying a stick with a magnet on the bottom of it. He considers himself a "rock hound," and the chance to find meteorites is like a dream come true.
"If I could find a piece, it'd be like amazing for me," Sladek said.
Meanwhile, December Harris, a Medina resident, said her cousin found an unusual rock and picked it up with a tissue from their driveway.
"About an inch long, I would say, it has all these stripes in it, hard as can be. It definitely looks like something that definitely is not around here," Harris said.
So if you go out searching for possible meteorites and you find what looks like a space rock, what should you do?
We asked an astronomer at the Museum of Natural History.
Astronomer Destiny Thomas said to wear gloves to protect the outer layer of the meteorite.
"When you are, say, preserving it or storing it, you can wrap it in plastic or even foil just to protect it from things like humidity," Thomas said.
This article was originally produced by Bob Jones for the Scripps News Group station in Cleveland.
