Arizona man tracks down Georgia meteorite

AZ man travels the world for otherworldly rocks

Pieces of a meteorite that exploded over Georgia now have a new home in Arizona. FOX 10's Steve Nielsen has more on how an Arizona meteor hunter found the crash site, and collected rocks that are out-of-this-world, in a sense.

PHOENIX - Pieces of a meteorite that exploded over Georgia in June have now found a new home in Arizona, and as it turns out, it was a meteor hunter from the Grand Canyon State who found the crash site, and collected some out-of-this-world rocks.

The backstory:

The fireball was caught perfectly on dashcam, and NASA officials confirmed a meteor crashed into earth in the Georgia area.

As it entered the atmosphere on June 26, NASA officials said the meteor was going roughly 30,000 miles per hour, and unleashed the equivalent of 20 tons of TNT.

One resident even reported a chunk of meteorite falling through their roof.

Dig deeper:

When people see video of a meteorite falling, they normally say "wow" or "cool," and then carry on.

For Robert Ward, however, it's go-time when that happens, and he starts packing his bags immediately.

Ward has turned his home in Prescott into one of the world's largest meteorite museums, and one can call him a meteorite hunter.

Like others, Ward saw video of the Georgia meteorite, and for him, it was the start of a chase.

"It came in at a fairly high angle, and looking at the radar data, we can tell everything in a fairly small area, so you’re gonna have a high concentration of stones in a short ground track," said Ward.

Ward used technology to track down a probable landing site, and it wasn't long before he spotted the unique rocks on the Georgia soil.

In all, he found 10 meteorites, and the largest one came in at 73.2 grams, or about 2.58 ounces. Now, it's on display in his museum.

What's next:

Ward is searching for a witnessed meteorite fall in Arizona.

Meteor vs. meteorite: Which one's which?

Big picture view:

According to NASA's website, there's a difference between meteors and meteorites.

Meteors, per the website, refer to the fireballs or "shooting stars" that are created when meteoroids, or rocks that are still in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, enter Earth's atmosphere (or the atmosphere of another planet) at a high speed, and burn up.

Meanwhile, NASA officials say meteorites are rocks that survive a trip through a planet's atmosphere, and hit the ground.