Astronomer finds meteorite pieces in Gold Country EL DORADO COUNTY

Robert Ward displays one of two pieces of a meteorite he found at a park in Lotus, Calif., Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Ward found the pieces from a meteor that was probably about the size of a minivan when it entered the Earth's atmosphere with a loud boom about 8 a.m. Sunday. The rocks came from a meteor, believed to between 4 to 5 billion years old. Ward, who has been hunting and collecting meteorites for more than 20 years, said they are believed to be "one of the oldest things known to man and one of the rarest types of meteorites there is.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) less Robert Ward displays one of two pieces of a meteorite he found at a park in Lotus, Calif., Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Ward found the pieces from a meteor that was probably about the size of a minivan when it ... more Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Astronomer finds meteorite pieces in Gold Country 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

(04-26) 12:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Searchers near historic Sutter's Mill have discovered fragments of the meteorite that exploded high in the sky at sunrise last Sunday.

Petrus Jenniskens, the same NASA astronomer who trekked across the Nubian desert four years ago to recover fragments of a small asteroid and bring them home, said Wednesday he had found fragments of the space object on the asphalt parking lot of Henningsen Lotus Park, located in the small town of Lotus in El Dorado County.

A fragment, he said, had fallen on an asphalt road in the parking lot and was crushed into smaller fragments by a car that ran over it.

"This meteor itself must have been big," Jenniskens said, "probably in the kiloton range. But now we need to find more fragments so we can begin to understand how it broke apart and what was inside it."

A team of searchers from the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View has been searching this week and will continue Thursday, Jenniskens said.

"Now we're hoping that anyone who has any videos or amateur photos of the explosion itself will contact us so we can begin to understand the meteor's trajectory before it exploded.

Anyone with images of the explosion can contact Jenniskens at petrus.m.jenniskens@nasa.gov.