Was Bemidji flash-bang a meteor? Officials aren't so sure.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — Did Bemidji residents see a meteor fly through the sky Monday night? That's the question on their minds.
After initially saying it was a meteor, Beltrami County officials are walking it back.
"if you're lucky enough to hear it, or see it, it's probably a once in a lifetime, or certainly only very few times in a lifetime," said Craig Zlimen, the owner of Minnesota Meteorites.
Bemidji residents didn't know that Monday, as the flash in the sky and accompanying loud boom brought more concern than awe.
"You just see basically a background flash that probably just detonated. [That] is when they come through the atmosphere and they hit basically terminal velocity and they sort of explode, and then they go dark. So what you're seeing is that last flash," said Zlimen.
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The space rocks are fast, small and unpredictable. To confirm what it actually was could take time.
"My guess is going to be it's a rock roughly the size of a refrigerator when it hits the atmosphere. It hit the atmosphere anywhere from 30,000 up to 130,000 miles per hour, which is what causes the sonic boom," said Zlimen.
Zlimen is trying to figure out if it was a meteor, and if there's a meteorite to recover.
"When I hear something like this in my backyard, you bet it makes the hair on my neck stand," said Zlimen. "Minnesota only has nine confirmed meteorites ever found in the state, which is an extremely low number when you consider places like Texas have many hundreds."
If a meteorite did make impact, it would be a rarity and could potentially be valuable.
"Depending on the size, they can go anywhere from a few dollars a gram, up to thousands per gram."
Let the search commence.
