United kingdom Daily news: Robert Ward from Arizona discovers two small meteorites in California, U.S.

Robert Ward from Arizona discovers two small meteorites in California, U.S.

Two rocks expected to fetch more than $1,000 (Â£700)
Fragments believed to be four to five billion years old
Meteorite hit the atmosphere at a speed of 44,000mph
Scientists anticipate that more space rocks from the meteor will be found

By Phil Vinter

PUBLISHED: 05:36 EST, 26 April 2012 | UPDATED: 08:23 EST, 26 April 2012

A meteor hunter who has spent two decades searching for unremarkable-looking lumps of space rock has struck rich after discovering two marble-sized meteorites worth ten times the price of gold.

The tiny stones found in northern California's Sierra foothills were part of a giant fireball that exploded with about one-third of the force of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, scientists said.

Robert Ward, of Prescott, Arizona, found the first of the nuggets on Tuesday at around 10am between a baseball field and a park on the edge of the town of Lotus in California.

Tiny treasures: Robert Ward shows off the two small lumps of meteorite rock he discovered in Lotus, California. The rocks are worth a combined total in excess of $1,000

The rocks each weigh about 10 grams (0.35oz), or the weight of two nickels, said John Wasson, a long-time professor and expert in meteorites at UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

According to gold gram bars at today's gold price's the two miniscule meteor chunks would be worth a combined total in excess of $1,000 (around Â£700).

Talking of his discovery, Mr Ward said he 'instantly knew' he'd found a rare meteorite known as 'CM' - carbonaceous chondrite - based in part on the 'fusion crusts from atmospheric entry' on one side of the rock. He has two rocks that he suspects were part of the same small meteorite that split on impact.

He said the discovery was a 'thrilling moment'. Adding: 'It is one of the oldest things known to man and one of the rarest types of meteorites there is.

'It contains amino acids and organic compounds that are extremely important to science.'

Speedy: Pictured in the sky above Reno, Nevada, the meteor as it flew through Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 44,000mph in the early hours of Sunday morning

Hotspot: The redbullseye indicates the place where Sunday's meteor exploded over California's central valley. The yellow triangles mark infrasound arrays which were key in determining the location of the meteor's explosion

Experts say the rock fragments come from a flaming meteor which dates from the early formation of the solar system around four to five billion years ago.

The speeding meteor which was the size of a minivan announced its entry into the Earth's atmosphere with boom early on Sunday

It could be seen from Sacramento, California, to Las Vegas and parts of northern Nevada.

Don Yeomans of Nasa's Near-Earth Object Programme Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said it was a once yearly event which usually takes place over the ocean or uninhabited parts of the globe.

He said: 'Getting to see one is something special, most meteors you see in the night's sky are the size of tiny stones or even grains of sand, and their trail lasts all of a second or two.'

The meteor probably weighed about 154,300lbs, said Bill Cooke, a specialist in meteors at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.

At the tim e of disintegration, he said, it probably released energy equivalent to a five-kiloton explosion. The 1945 Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons.

'You don't often have kiloton rocks flying over your head,' he said.

Little nugget: One meteorite was found near the town of Coloma, north east of Sacramento. Experts anticipate more discoveries over the coming days

The sonic boom, another expert said, was caused by the whopping 44,000mph velocity - faster than the speed of sound - with which the space rock entered the atmosphere.

Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Centre at Harvard University said the friction between the rock and the air is so intense that the meteor doesn't burn it, it vaporises'.

One meteorite was found near the town of Coloma, north east of Sacramento and the experts anticipate more discoveries over the coming days.

Bits of the meteor could be strewn over an area as broad as 10 miles, most likely stretching west from Coloma, where James Marshall first discovered gold in California, at Sutter's Mill in 1848.

Mr Yeomens said this type of meteorite discovered by Mr Ward was one of the more primitive types of space rocks, dating to the origin of the solar system four to five billion years ago.

Lovely lump: At the time of disintegration the meteor probably released energy equivalent to a five-kiloton explosion. The 1945 Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons

He said it has two of the most important chemicals that scientists look for: carbon and a form of water.

The asteroid was not on Nasa's lengthy list of near-Earth objects that it tracks coming close to the planet, so it took scientists by surprise.

'There are millions of objects of that size that we don't know about,' Mr Yeomans said. 'They're too small to image unless they're right up on top of you.'

The find comes after 15 pounds of meteorite from Mars fell in Morocco last July.

That was only the fifth time in history scientists have chemically confirmed Martian meteorites that people witnessed falling. The last shower that was found 'fresh' - and thus uncontaminated by Earth chemicals -Â was in 1962.

The rocks are incredibly valuable - 10 times more precious than gold - because no Mars rover or lander has yet returned Martian material to Earth. The only source for Martian rock is these showers.
Mars
The f ireball was spotted in the sky six months ago, but the rocks werenâ€™t discovered on the ground in North Africa until the end of December last year.