(Newser)
– Looking for an apricot-sized meteorite near Aiguillon, France. The cameras at an astronomy facility in Mauraux saw the small space rock that fell to Earth in southwestern France last weekend, according to the Guardian. The meteorite landed at 22:43 on Saturday night near Aiguillon, about 60 miles southeast of Bordeaux, but no one has found it yet. And this is not for lack of attempts. Posters have been put up in the area asking for help finding the five-ounce rock and notifying residents of the prized product between them. “A cool meteorite like this, which fell a few days ago, has not been altered by the Earth’s environment and therefore contains very valuable information for scientists,” explains Mickael Wilmart, who belongs to the association that operates the observatory.
Meteorites, which usually have a bright, burnt exterior, are “relics of the creation of the solar system,” Wilmart said in a statement, according to the venue. According to NASA, “they represent some of the original and diverse materials that formed planets billions of years ago.” Some even come from Mars. “We really count on people to look at their gardens or by the side of the road,” Wilmart says. “They could stumble upon this much-loved rock.” The Mauraux facility is part of a network of 100 cameras assembled for the Sky Watch project, which seeks to track and identify the approximately ten meteorites that land in France each year, but success is no guarantee. Even knowing the approximate location of the meteorite, “it’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Wilmart says. (This guy found a meteorite in the worst possible way.)