Where NASA has located meteorites in Livingston County

For 10 years, Marc Fries, a scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Curation office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston has chased down meteorites.

Despite the center being closed Wednesday due to ice-covered roads in Houston, he located the meteorites from the meteor that landed in southeast Michigan on Tuesday night.

“I’ve been finding meteorite falls by examining weather radar data,’’ said Fries. “The weather radars are not designed to spot meteors because they are pointed to the ground. But any meteorites have to fall past the radar to get to the ground. They are rocks, they are reflective and they will show up in radar images.’’

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Fries provided the Free Press with his map that shows meteorites located near the Michigan communities of Lakeland and Hamburg in Livingston County

The pixels on the map show radar reflections of falling meteorites at altitudes between 1.2 miles to 1.8 miles.

"These meteorites themselves landed on the ground directly beneath them because winds were fairly calm at the time of the meteorite fall," Fries said. "These data indicate that meteorites reach the ground and can be collected."

In 10 years, Fries said the system as located more than 24 meteorite falls in the U.S. and Canada.

“This one shows up,’’ Fries said.

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