MEDINA, Ohio (AP) — Meteorite hunters fanned out across a wide swath of Ohio on Thursday, hoping to collect fragments of an estimated 7-ton (6,350 kilograms) space rock that crashed into Earth this week after a dazzling fireball that was seen from hundreds of miles away.The meteoroid broke apart around 9 a.m. Tuesday over Valley City, a half-hour south of Cleveland, after it sped through the atmosphere at about 45,000 miles (72,420 kilometers) per hour. It caused a sonic boom that rattled buildings and caused fears of an explosion. The fireball was seen from Wisconsin to Maryland, and NASA confirmed it was a meteoroid nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter.Medina resident December Harris didn’t have to go looking — her cousin and roommate, Ambra Sinclair, found a small black rock they suspect is a meteorite when she was leaving for work. They had heard the sonic boom Tuesday morning but figured it might have been noise from a nearby airport.AdvertisementAdvertisementHarris said her roommate found the rock in a 4-foot (1.2-meter) area between the garage and the house late Wednesday morning. She described it as somewhat triangular shaped, less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter — and “very, very black,” with pits on the surface, grooves and a melted texture on its exterior.Meteoroids are traveling at very high speeds when they suddenly hit gases that blanket Earth, causing tremendous stress as they compress the air in front of them. That heats the rock, which melts and breaks apart.The sight of the black rock stuck out at Harris’ house.“I’ve got a cleaned-off driveway,” said Harris, 70, a retired business owner. “There’s nothing like this around.”AdvertisementAdvertisementShe had heard she should avoid touching a meteorite with bare hands, so they picked it up with a napkin and placed it inside a jar. Now she’s looking for a way to authenticate it — no one answered the NASA phone number she called seven times.“To us, me and my co …
