Has a meteorite ever been found in Newfoundland? One man says he's collected 16

A retired science teacher in central Newfoundland says he believes he isthe owner of several meteorites, despite claims that a rock from outer space has never been found on the island.

When abright light shot across the sky over St. John's Monday night, it sent a few people scouring the SouthsideHills on Tuesday looking for traces of meteorite.Ameteorite is a piece of rock that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and makes it to land.

Flashing light seen above St. John's harbour

7 years ago

Duration 0:13

A possible meteorite shoots down near the Southside Hills area.

A local amateur astronomer said on Tuesday the shooting star likely burned up before reaching land in the Southside Hills, and that if a meteorite had been found, it would be the first one confirmed in the province.

However, Grand Falls-Windsor's Albert Garland would disagree with that, and is fairly confident he has collected nearly 20 pieces of meteor rocks since he found his first piece unexpectedly in the late 1980s.

"I found this really strange-looking rock. It was quite hefty and heavy and then I realized if I took a magnet it would stick to it, and all of these different features started to stand out," he told CBC Radio's On The Go.

"I've been looking for other pieces of it since that time, and now I have 16 pieces in total."

Unique characteristics

Garland uses a meteorite hunting field guide tohelphim identify space rocks when he's out walking in the wilderness.Hesaidhis 16 fragmentsall match the descriptions of meteorites, which often have tiny balls of material of a certain colour evidence of early formation of the first objects in the universe.

He's had the pieces examined by a geologist at Memorial University, who confirmed the structures resemblethose of meteorites, but Garland said he couldn't confirm for sure.

The retired teacher said it's extremely difficult, even for experts, to determine if a rock is indeed from space. But after years of looking at his rocksunder a microscope and matching it to research he's read, he stands by his claims.

"I'm pretty confident. I've been doing a lot of research on it," he said.

"All these [characteristics] can be found in Earth rocks, but it's the form that it takes, the texture. The arrangement, size, and shape of the particles makeit stand out as something from off the Earth makes it extraterrestrial."