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Walworth County meteorite of '55 struck near Zenda

ZENDA — The suspected meteor the size of the one that lit up the sky of southern Wisconsin Wednesday night is rare, but not unheard of.

Occasionally, they hit the ground, turning the meteor into a meteorite, and now the search is on to find the latest one.

A Walworth County meteorite is one of at least 12 discovered in Wisconsin since the 1860s, according to the University of Wisconsin Extension.

The Zenda Meteorite was found in 1955 about a half-mile west of the community of Zenda, just south of Geneva Lake.

It weighed 8.16 pounds and was deeply oxidized, according to the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

It was an iron meteorite containing kamacite, schreibersite patches, troilite, taenite, and lawrencite. It also contained minor graphite, olivine and pyroxene.

Meteorites are called "falls" when it is observed falling to the ground; those recovered later are called "finds.”

After Wednesday's fireball, meteorite hunters from all over are heading to southwestern Wisconsin in hopes of discovering the next "find."

Searchers suspect chunks of the space rock landed somewhere near Livingston (MAP), in Grant County, west of Dodgeville.

Discovering a meteorite can pay well, too. Meteorite fragments found in Park Forest, Ill., back in 2003 were worth about $500,000, according to a report on WGN.

However, meteoroligists are still unsure exactly what it was that streaked across the sky Wednesday. Some suspect it could have been fallen space junk.

The largest meteorite chunks ever found in Wisconsin weighed weighed 527 pounds and 413 pounds from a hit near West Bend. The first pieces were discovered in 1858.

A complete list of Wisconsin meteorite hits is at www.uwex.edu.