Residents in parts of Mississippi are collecting the rocky remnants of a flaming meteor that fell across three southern U.S. states on April 27.
The meteorite fragments seem to have turned up not far from Natchez, Mississippi, though officials have not been able to identify the exact locations where they have been found.
Dozens of skywatchers spotted the fireball as it streaked across the sky. Live Science previously reported that the blazing meteor, which was 10 times brighter than the moon, created shock waves and struck with the force of 3 tons of TNT.
After reanalyzing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES 16 and 17 satellites, the team determined the space rock was zooming through the sky at about 35,000 mph (56,000 km/h) when it exploded, much lower than the 55,000 mph (88,500 km/h)
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NASA shared an image of a coal-colored hunk of space rock on May 2. The chunk hit the ground at speeds of up to 300 mph.
NASA does not want people to send in their space junk for analysis. The checklist from Washington University in St. Louis can be used to identify meteorite fragments.
It is the finders keepers when it comes to extraterrestrial rocks.
Existing law states that meteorites belong to the owner of the property on which they fell, but out of respect for the privacy of those in the area, we will not disclose the locations of these finds.
Unclassified black space rocks, or chondrites, which are similar to the ones that landed in Mississippi last week, can be had for as little as $0.50 per gram.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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