Meteorite hunters chase treasures after fireball streaks across Georgia

In a floppy sun hat and pink shirt, Albin tests the meteorite with a rare earth magnet attached to a metal pole. It gives a faint hint of magnetic attraction, its nickel iron flecks pulling it toward the magnet — proof of its descent from outer space.

Another hunter, Sonny Clary, runs over to take a look.

“Millions of years flying in outer space,” he said, in awe. “How cool is that?”

Credit: Chaya Tong

Credit: Chaya Tong

Most people would easily mistake a meteorite for an average black rock. Maybe that’s what makes them special. They’re cosmic treasures hidden in plain sight.

Hundreds of meteorite hunters have descended on Georgia. They flew in from across the country, packing their bags and abandoning their plans and lives back home for a chance to find a stone from the stars.

Many of them have met before, a niche group that hunts alongside each other each time a meteor — which when it hits the ground becomes a meteorite — comes to Earth. Some are locals or first-time hunters.

But all are united in one goal with equal opportunity at achieving it.

And all of them remember the moment they heard that heart-stopping news: A fireball has landed in Georgia.

Meteorite hunting is both a hobby and a business. Oftentimes, finds in the field pay for expensive plane tickets and travel to get to remote locations — like this Sunday, when hunters scavenged through the “hot spot,” a field marked for construction behind a home development in McDonough.

They can turn quite the profit. Meteorites found from the fireball so far are going for roughly $100 per gram.

The last time a meteor landed in Georgia, in 2022 near Junction city, pieces went for $400 per gram.

Most scientists wait to receive meteorites. They don’t hunt alongside the hunters that chase them around the country. But Ed Albin is different. Though he is an associate professor of space and earth sciences for American Public University and worked as a planetarium astronomer for the Fernbank Museum for 27 years before retirement, as he puts it, he’s “not a stuffed shirt.” He hunts right alongside everyone else. And he’s in it for science. Every small piece of meteorite is enough for geochemical analysis and classification.

The meteorite he found Sunday morning, clocking in at 14.33 grams, could sell for upward of $1,500. But Albin plans to hang on to it — he said it’s the “most beautiful space rock he’s ever collected to date.” He’s not a religious person, he said, but he did say a little prayer while driving to McDonough.

“I was saying, ‘Please, creator of the universe, help me find one of your marvelous stones,’” he said. “And he or she came through.”

He then wrapped the meteorite in a plastic case with a black frame and tucked it in his pocket.

Credit: Chaya Tong

Credit: Chaya Tong

Some of the world’s finest meteorite hunters flew into Georgia for the event. Steve Arnold, star of the documentary “Meteorite Men” on Science Channel, pulled up to McDonough on Sunday morning in his bright yellow truck. He started driving from his home in Arkansas a few hours after the fall, reaching the site at sunrise. He’s not sure how long he’ll stay. In 2003, he stayed in Chicago for 44 days after a fall; in 2008, he stayed for 28 days in Texas.

Meteor hunting is his livelihood, but he also owns a ghost tour business in Arkansas, he jokes “as far on the opposite end of the spectrum of the science of hunting meteorites.”

Though meteorite hunting is his career, he firmly believes that anyone can do it. A 9-year-old boy found one of the biggest chunks of the Georgia fireball to date on Saturday.

“If a 9-year-old can find one, anybody can find one,” he said.

He’s been handing out postcards around the neighborhood near the fall asking people to search their yards for meteorites.

“Most of the time, these end up going through your lawn mower,” Craig Zlimen, a top tier meteorite hunter who drove from Minnesota to Georgia on Thursday, said. “They end up going down a storm drain. They end up getting dropped in a cow pasture and stepped on. They end up getting run over on the roads. They get wet. There’s iron in them, so they rust and fall apart and they just disappear.”

It’s potentially thousands of dollars – and a small piece of outer space –that gets lost in a crash landing on Earth.

Steven Dixey, a bartender from Atlanta, made the first finds from the Georgia fireball just a couple of hours after the first reports of the meteor trickled in. Though he’d been collecting for a little over a decade, Thursday was his first real meteorite find.

“It was sheer luck,” he said.

He mailed some of his findings off to Arizona State University Saturday morning to be studied and classified.

For now, he’s not planning to continue the hunt.

“I had a lot of fun doing it, but I think I’m gonna leave some for more people to find,” he said.

Credit: Chaya Tong

Credit: Chaya Tong

Preston Allen and his son Jerron, 14, flew in from Utah on Friday. It’s their first time in Georgia.

“I saw a bunch of my friends going out there, and just kind of got that jolt of adrenaline, that FOMO that kind of hits,” Allen said. “It’s the first thing I thought about when I woke up.”

Jerron Allen had his first meteorite find on Saturday.

“He had a big smile on his face,” Allen said. “He was excited.”

Credit: Chaya Tong

Credit: Chaya Tong

There’s even a meteorite hunting dog. Her name is Piper. Her owner, Carl Dietrich, who came to Georgia from South Carolina, hunts for meteorites in the field while Piper enthusiastically greets other hunters and nibbles on the tall grass. He empties out chunks of meteorite he’s found from their storage place in a granola box.

Dietrich and Piper have been traveling around the country in his car to hunt meteorites since 2022. Dietrich even has a bed folded up in the back so they don’t spend too much on hotels. Plus, when he goes desert hunting, the bed in the car with air conditioning beats a hot stuffy tent every time.

Dietrich rescued Piper from the pound. She’s a mutt, but he thinks she has some shepherd in her — a hunting dog through and through.

“She’s there for emotional support,” he said, laughing. “She has a blast. She loves seeing all the people, and she loves being outside, too.”

He got into meteorite hunting after watching Arnold’s show on Discovery Channel. When he was 18, he saw a fireball streaking through the sky, and the rest was history.

“I’m really grateful that I got into it,” he said. “It’s a blast, and it’s definitely given me more of a sense of purpose.”

Iliana Machiz and her husband, Ari Machiz, from Mableton, have enjoyed casual hunting since the 2022 Junction City fall, where they made their first finds. Ari Machiz, a school bus driver, had just finished his summer school shift on Thursday when the fireball streaked across the sky. The timing was perfect.

“I started because of him, and I look for them because of him, but I’m not gonna deny that you get adrenaline trying to find them,” Iliana said, holding an umbrella to protect herself from the sun while hunting through the field. “It really feels like egg hunts for adults.”

It’s not about keeping the meteorites, she said, it’s about the chase. Still, she is excited by Albin’s morning find.

“I was telling him, ‘You found a beautiful one,’” she said, laughing. “‘Ninety-nine percent of me is so happy for you, but my human nature says ‘I wish it was me.’”