A portion of a ‘heat map’ – showing location of witnesses or observers, and ground trajectory – of January 24, 2016, daylight meteor via the American Meteor Society.
A portion of a ‘heat map’ – showing location of witnesses or observers, and ground trajectory – of January 24, 2016, daylight meteor via the American Meteor Society.
meteorite
© MikesAstroPhotos.com.Meteorite
You may remember hearing about a fireball meteor that streaked across the daytime sky in Florida late last month. Fragments of that meteorite have been tracked down and recovered by a group of meteorite enthusiasts, according to Earthsky.com.

Mike Hankey, Larry Atkins, Laura Atkins, Brendan Fallon and Josh Adkins searched for days in pine forests and swamplands across Florida in search of the space rock. The zone where the meteorites were found matched up perfectly with the trajectory that the meteor took during the January 24th fireball event. According to the American Meteor Society, there are now almost 130 reports that a bright meteor streaked over the southeast U.S. on January 24th and 10:25 A.M. ET.

Josh Adkins holds up an 800-gram meteorite
© Brendan FallonJosh Adkins holds up an 800-gram meteorite – a chunk of rock from space – associated with the January 24, 2016 daylight meteor over the U.S. Southeast.

The reason that people search for meteorites is that they are typically ancient objects that formed during the birth of our solar system and can hold many secrets about it. One of the fragments is currently being studied Alan Rubin, a meteorite expert and researcher at UCLA. He is currently working to determine the classification of what is now being called the Osceola meteorite.