Mar 11, 2009 6:50 am US/Eastern
Westchester 'Boom' Believed To Be Meteorite
WHITE PLAINS (CBS) ―
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The mysterious boom that may have rattled Westchester county just might have been a meteorite. Dozens of people reported hearing the noise Saturday, and now a meteorite expert says he thinks it was a falling space rock, and he's offering big bucks to anyone who finds solid evidence.
It was a boom that shook the burbs just after midnight Saturday. Cops in Tuckahoe heard it, and so did the police chief's son.
"Some likened it to when a transformer blows, but a lot of callers actually reported their house shook from the explosion," says Tuckahoe Police Chief John Costanzo.
People in a half-dozen southern Westchester communities reported hearing the boom. About the same time, a woman in Mount Kisco reported seeing a yellow light streaking across the southern sky.
To Darryl Pitt, that can only mean a meteor, which means somewhere on the ground there's a meteorite – the actual stone or metal that came from a fallen meteoroid.
"Not only was there the visual phenomena, but there was the sonic phenomenon, the sonic boom of this object breaking the sound barrier," Pitt tells CBS 2.
Pitt is a New York City businessman, and also a top collector of meteorites. He says a Doppler radar image supports his theory. It shows what could be a meteorite debris cloud approaching Westchester around midnight Saturday.
In theory, that means pieces of space rock may have rained down on Westchester yards. And Pitt is willing to pay as much as $10,000 for a big chunk of meteorite.
So if you go hunting through your yard, look for black-crusted, non-jagged rocks that stick to a magnet. And if you file off a small piece, look for flecks of metal.
"Take a file, take off the edge. If the internal matrix is different than the outside crust, and it's sticking to a magnet, it's a really good bet its a meteorite," he says.
If you find a suspected space rock,
e-mail a picture to Pitt by clicking here and he'll help you determine if it's a meteorite, or what collectors call a "meteorwrong."
A second loud boom was heard early Monday morning in nearby Rockland County. Nanuet resident Keith Wallenstein said the mysterious noise woke him up at about 5:15 Monday morning and sounded like someone had flown an F-16 over his house.
What Do You Think The Mysterious 'Boom' Is? Leave Your Comments.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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