Meteorite hunter searches for space rocks that fell to Earth
- There are only a handful of people who take part in 'meteorite hunting'
- One of them, Roberto Vargas, has been able to make it his full-time job
- Money's being offered to those who recover a meteorite that fell in Maine
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(NewsNation) — As a little boy, Roberto Vargas says, he loved collecting rocks.
Now, he gets to do it as a full-time job, though with a twist: The rocks Vargas finds as an adult are from space.
Vargas says he is one of only 15 “meteorite hunters” in America. This handful of Americans make a living finding and tracking meteorites that fall to Earth.
It can be a lucrative business.
Earlier this year, a meteorite fell near the Maine-Canada border. Now, the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum is giving $25,000 to anyone who can recover at least one kilogram of it, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“Irrespective of size, for any specimen recovered there would be a handsome reward provided,” Darryl Pitt, the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum’s curator of meteorites, said, according to the publication.
Vargas said meteorites range in value from as little as 15 cents a gram to several hundred dollars for a gram.
“Their real value is to science,” he said.
One of his “outlier” sales, Vargas said, gave him $30,000 for a 30-gram space rock.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know you could own a meteorite until around 2017,” Vargas said. “And then, when I got my first one, it was just it was fascinating. It’s crazy to hold a piece of space, you know?”
