{"id":487630,"date":"2026-03-21T12:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487630\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:49:12","slug":"meteorite-hunters-descend-on-town-after-7-ton-space-rock-plunged-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487630\/","title":{"rendered":"Meteorite hunters descend on town after 7-ton space rock plunged to earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26078825807640.jpg\"  fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"While many are actively searching, one resident had a piece delivered almost to her doorstep\" data-hero=\"true\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE\"\/>While many are actively searching, one resident had a piece delivered almost to her doorstep (AP)<\/p>\n<p>An estimated 6,350-kilogramme meteoroid disintegrated spectacularly over Valley City, Ohio, on Tuesday, causing a dazzling fireball and a sonic boom heard across several states.<\/p>\n<p>The meteoroid, confirmed by NASA to be nearly 1.8 metres in diameter and travelling at approximately 72,420 kilometres per hour, prompted a widespread search for fragments.<\/p>\n<p>Medina resident December Harris and her roommate Ambra Sinclair discovered a small, &#8220;very, very black&#8221; rock with pits and a melted texture, suspected to be a meteorite, near their garage.<\/p>\n<p>Meteorite collector Roberto Vargas travelled from Connecticut to Ohio and successfully located two pieces, one described as a &#8220;100% fusion crusted&#8221; museum-quality specimen.<\/p>\n<p>Another local, Gabe Leidy, also found a suspected meteorite in the Sharon Center area, which he intends to keep as a memento of the &#8220;once-in-a-lifetime event.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In full<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many are actively searching, one resident had a piece delivered almost to her doorstep (AP) An estimated&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}