Rock reward: Museum searches for meteorite pieces along N.B. and Maine border

The search is on for remnants of a flying "fireball" over Maine and New Brunswick this past weekend.

According to NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science division, eyewitnesses in the Calais, Maine, area saw the "apparent meteorite fall" just before 1 p.m. Atlantic on April 8, followed by the sound of loud sonic booms.

ARES says pieces of Maine's first radar-observed meteorite fall may have also landed in New Brunswick. The remote area between Waite, Maine, and Canoose, N.B., has been identified as the estimated strewn field.

"Meteorites in this event fell directly into winds of up to 100 mph, (160 km/h) carrying smaller meteorites across the border into Canada," says the ARES summary.

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel is offering a $25,000 U.S. reward for the first meteorite it receives from this particular fall, weighing at least one kilogram.

"That's not to say that if there were smaller pieces there still wouldn't be some interest in acquiring a piece," says Myles Felch, a staff geologist at the museum. "If found, it would be a witnessed fall."

"That in itself is a pretty special thing if you can find it. Also, there's the unknown of what the composition of that particular meteorite might be if found."