Meteorite hunter finds space rock fragments in Hamburg Township

HAMBURG TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJBK) - People all over metro Detroit are still searching for meteorites after Tuesday night's stunning meteor explosion.

SkyFOX spotted people out on the ice of Bass Lake in Livingston County. Many have never heard of Hamburg Township but now it's on the map.

Small pieces of it showered Hamburg and now meteorites hunters are searching high and low for these space rocks.

"The best way to identify meteorites is by the black fusion crust, the angular shape, it's heavier than a normal stone," said Robert Ward. "I know because I've done this full time. I've found over 600 meteorites all over the world and every continent except Antarctica."

Ward is a professional meteorite hunter and a planetary science field researcher in Arizona. On Thursday he found three meteorites on Hamburg Township Lake.

"These are 3.8, 4 billion years old," he said. "They've been orbiting our sun since the formation of the planets."

Darryl Pitt is a meteorite collector originally from Southfield but now calls New York home.

"I'm offering $20,000 for the first one kilo specimen - and I'm also happy to pay for any specimen that anyone finds," he said.

That sounds like a lot, but how do you put a price tag on space rocks that are billions of years old?

"A few days ago it was hundreds of thousands of miles on the other side of the moon," Ward said. "And we're holding them in our hands right now. It is a fascinating thing."

MORE COVERAGE:
NASA expert: Meteorite pieces likely fell in Hamburg from radar data
Treasure hunters swarm Macomb County for Michigan Meteorite
Michigan Meteor: Where to find debris, why we didn't know it was coming, and more
How much a piece of Michigan meteorite could be worth and how to identify it against a rock
Fire in the sky: Meteor soars over Michigan causing massive tremor

For more information on how to identify a meteorite, go to http://meteorites.wustl.edu/check-list.htm