A bright daytime fireball was witnessed over Georgia at around 16:25 Universal Time (UT) on the 26th of June. 239 reports of the bolide from as far away North Carolina, Alabama and Florida were logged with the American Meteor Society’s fireball log. The log includes five videos including one doorbell videocam in which a prominent sonic boom can be heard. NASA estimated the pre-entry size of the meteoroid to be 1 meter in diameter. At the time of writing this, the current total known weight of recoveries is 3.69473 kilograms.
The event received wide news circulation, I even heard it being talked about on one of my town’s local radio station in Pennsylvania. The rapid rise in both security cameras and dash cams has resulted in a proliferation of meteoroids being caught in the act of becoming meteors. While this type of footage is impressive, and adds posterity of the event for collectors, the fixed nature and constant or motion activated recording functions of these devices lacks an element of great photography. That is the element of luck, of being in just the right place at just the right time to get a one in a million shot. The last time I though “wow that was an amazing lucky shot” was a photo that emerged during the Vinales bolide, caught by chance, by a passenger out the window of a plane off the coast of Cuba in February 2019. I didn’t think much would ever top the lucky nature of that shot. Fast forward to 26 June 2025 and someone with Skydive Carolina caught the bolide in the distance on a helmet mounted action camera while filming a customer’s tandem jump. That is some incredible happenstance.
This fall produced a large amount of small to medium individuals and plenty of fragments. Finds have ranged from sub gram individuals with nice orientation up to a 406.4-gram individual found by a homeowner. There are many hammer stones from the fall, the original that went through a house roof, a porch/patio hitter, a shed hitter, numerous driveway and road finds, and what is definitely a first, a meteorite retrieved from the bottom of a swimming pool. It has been fun to see veteran hunters and first-time finders alike, including a couple of kids, succeeding in making amazing recoveries. So, without further ado, here are some questions answered by the finders, some of whom were gracious enough to take time responding while still on the hunt!
How did you hear about this fall?
Steven Dixey: I was actually doing some work on my meteorite display cabinets I’ve been building out when I saw the first news reports, about 20 minutes after the fall (I’m in Atlanta). First reports I saw were all over: GA / SC / VA I thought, “if they find it, I may be able to drive out this weekend and hunt… I saw the AMS report shortly after that, and it had a WSW trajectory south of Atlanta, then the messages and posts started coming in. It looked like central Georgia. I was messaging with Vargas when I saw the report of the house hit in Henry county… that’s 50 minutes south of me! Vargas was like GO, GO, GO!!! I hesitated, but basically dropped what I was doing, grabbed some hiking and rain gear and jumped in my truck (a 96 Ranger with NO AC, heat index was near 100° it was pretty brutal) I was driving south about 1 hour and 10 minutes after the fall. Vargas kept in touch with me and sent me radar info, steered me in to the most likely spot. I got to the area about 1 hour and 50 minutes after the fall, looked over the radar map and drove into the first neighborhood, creeping and scanning the roads and sidewalks.
Through LUCK, absolute pure Luck and assistance on the location from Vargas I found the first stone! Pieces scattered on a sidewalk, easement, and street. I had my first ever find in my hands barely 2 hours after the fall!!!
Ed Albin: The meteor came right over my house in Covington, GA. I also operate two AMS AllSky7 meteor cameras that picked it up.
Cameron and Jodi Smith: Our local meteorologist, James Spann, posted about the fall on social media. We then, naturally, went straight to the usual meteorite groups to gauge the community reaction. Jodi checked all the Doppler readings, the American Meteor Society’s fireball log. Finally, we began messaging our fellow hunters, and planning our trip.
Steve Arnold: Mainstream media reports on a house being hit. Hard to ignore that kind of thing.
Preston Allen: I first heard about it from social media posts. It was widely reported and shared around the meteorite community quickly.
Eric Lyon: I first saw the fall in the news, a few after it happened, then my brother Mark Lyon sent me a message saying i should book a ticket to Georgia to hunt on his behalf, since he was still finishing up at the St Marie Aux Mines mineral show in France and was unable to come join the hunt. I of course booked a plane ticket immediately!
Dave Kenny: I heard about this Georgia fall through social media. My wife and I were driving out of a wilderness area (with no cellular coverage) in British Columbia and at about 2 PM Pacific Time I began getting messages from meteorite hunting friends that there had been a significant fireball and meteorite fall. When I heard that my meteorite hunting partners were heading to Georgia, I had to book a flight!
Pat Branch: A local friend actually texted me and said there was a meteor in SC. I was too busy to look, but later one of the known hunters called and asked if there were radar hits on this GA fall.
Ari Machiz: I heard about this fall from a meteorite Facebook group.
Iliana Machiz: From Ari.
Steve Poterala: We just happened to see the news, on the day of the fall, when eating dinner at a BBQ restaurant.
Roberto Vargas: I saw it on Facebook, first. About 5 minutes later, Steven Dixey messaged me.
Norman LeBron Jr.: Through Roberto’s network. It was my 35th birthday when the fireball was seen and we knew we HAD to try and find some.
Chris Sanders: I live in Georgia, so as soon as it fell people were texting me about it. As soon as the video became public, I had a bunch of texts and messages asking if it could be a meteorite since folks know I’m a collector.
How long have you been hunting for fresh falls? If you happen to know, mention how many fall hunts you have been on what number success this is for you.
Steven Dixey: I hunted Junction City on day 3 (if I remember correctly) I found the tiniest of micros at the “road smasher” site, but can’t really count that. Doesn’t even compare.
Ed Albin: I’ve been hunting for fresh falls since 2022. This was the second fall hunt that I participated in (Junction City was the first), and this is the second time I’ve had success finding meteorites.
Cameron and Jodi Smith: This is our fourth fresh fall hunt. Our first was the fall in Carrollton Georgia in 2020. We searched for a day and were unable to find anything. Our second was Cranfield, and we were able to find several crusty fragments of the road smasher that Roberto and Matt originally found. The third was Junction City, and while we ourselves didn’t find anything, the group we were in had agreed to spilt our findings, so we ended up with a piece because Iliana Machiz found a chunk big enough to share with everyone. This is our fourth fresh fall hunt.
Steve Arnold: Monahans in 1998 I think was my first fall. (I don’t recall one earlier than that…). Now you are making me think. Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not even sure if I’ve lost count…or if I just never started keeping count. Maybe 4 chases on average per year in the last 22 (Park Forest in 2003 really got me hooked.) So that might be 88? That sounds high…but I might be in denial and not willing to admit to that much failure.
Preston Allen: This is the second fresh fall that I went for. The first was the “Great Salt Lake” fall in 2022 but I did not find any stones in the three days I put it on that hunt.
Eric Lyon: This is only my second fresh fall hunt experience, my first was the fall near Quartzite, Arizona back in late December of 2023. After days of searching with my brother Mark and several other hunters, I unfortunately had no success.
Dave Kenny: I have hunted several Canadian falls with no success. My wife and I hunted the “Clanton Well” fireball less than 48 hours after the fall, as we were passing by the fall zone, but it was extremely hot and we were only able to search for about 4 hours. Georgia is the first fresh fall that I have hunted for more than a few hours and I had great success.
Pat Branch: I have been hunting meteorites for over 20 years. Been pretty successful the last few years. I have recovered rocks from about 6 of the witnessed falls in the last few years.
Ari Machiz: My first hunt was in September of 2022 when I hunted the Junction City, GA fall. I found a 4.5g piece on that hunt. This fall in McDonough, GA is my second time hunting. I found a total of 28g plus a piece I gave to Steve Arnold which probably weighed a couple grams.
Iliana Machiz: My first hunt was the Junction City, GA fall in September of 2022. I found meteorites on both hunts!
Steve Poterala: This is the first time we have hunted a fresh fall, and the first time for the kids hunting meteorites at all. I’ve previously hunted for meteorites in CA, both cold hunting and hunting near known finds.
Roberto Vargas: I’ve been hunting meteorites since 2019, starting with Aguas Zarcas in Costa Rica. I don’t remember exactly how many hunts I’ve been on—maybe 20 to 30 since then. Of those, I’d say about 10 have been successful.
Norman LeBron Jr.: I’ve gone with Roberto on a few hunts to the Finger Lakes in NY and out to Salt Lake, UT. But I’ve never actually found a piece myself before this current fall in Georgia. I think I’ve been hunting for a few years now.
Chris Sanders: This was my first hunt! I’ve always wanted to go hunting myself, but being a solo dad, it’s not always easy to get away. When this one fell a couple hours from my house, the stars aligned (see what I did there) for me to go hunting for a day.
If you found one piece, what aspect do you like most about it? If you found multiples which is your favorite and why?
Steven Dixey: All in all I made the first two finds on the day of the fall (not counting the house hitter who’s location is not yet public as far as I know) I made 5 more finds the following day. I had made 6 total finds before other hunters began finding more (I was lucky to be able to drive straight into the area where I had made the first finds the day before).
Hands down, my favorite pieces are from the first stone. I recovered 159 grams of it (about 75%) and it has fantastic flow lines and appears that it would have been nicely oriented if intact.
Ed Albin: I found a 14.3-gram individual meteorite, and I like that it was fully encrusted with a fusion crust.
Cameron and Jodi Smith: Jodi and I both have found multiple pieces, but we both agree that finding our first individuals were our best finds of this hunt.
Steve Arnold: So far I have found 4 specimens here. The circumstances of deducing why I was looking in a certain area on the first find (that really stretched the known strewnfield) gives me tremendous satisfaction. I thought there should be something there, and there was!
Preston Allen: I went out there with my 14-year-old son, Jerron and we had a total of 10 different finds. 9 stones either completely or mostly complete, and one driveway smasher with several pieces I assume are attributed to one stone. My favorite stone, aesthetically speaking would be the only stone I found on the second day of my hunt, June 29th. It is a fully crusted stone that is sort of a disc-triangle shape with brown crust on top and thick dark crust around the edge. Not quite a roll over lip but still very uniform pretty.
Eric Lyon: I found 7 fragmented crusted pieces ranging from .5g-3.2g, a small fully crusted individual, as well as a bunch of very small fragments. My favorite probably is a half stone fragment that has a beautifully crusted back side, but my first very small piece was such an incredible feeling to finally actually find a fresh fallen meteorite, so that’s a close second!
Dave Kenny: I have found at present 14 pieces, mostly small complete stones. The first piece I found is my favorite as I found it at my first search site – it is a 45 g completely crusted individual. It was found visually and I have not touched it with a magnet.
Pat Branch: I found 3. The 23 gram is nice in that it is half a stone so you can see the inside. My 5 gram is a nice fusion crusted piece. I gave away a 2-gram piece to Rob Matson since he provided the first radar hits that I used.
Ari Machiz: I like that two of my finds have a good amount of crust (the stone did smash on the concrete), and they aren’t tiny, so I’m really happy.
Iliana Machiz: I’m not attracted to them and I don’t keep them. I give them to Ari. I do it for the hunt. That’s what gives me the rush and the excitement… looking for them.
Steve Poterala: We only found one stone (My son found it) and we like that it’s both large and completely fusion crusted / undamaged.
Roberto Vargas: I made 11 finds on this hunt, and I have two favorites. The first piece I found was a 151g specimen. It was the largest piece I recovered, but that’s not why it’s one of my favorites. It’s special to me because it went to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville. I get a real sense of satisfaction from helping meteorites end up in institutions located in the state or region where they fell.
My second favorite is a 0.9g fully crusted individual—beautifully oriented with a rollover lip. Just an amazing little pea!
Norman LeBron Jr.: I found four pieces total. My favorite (and first found) piece is a fully crusted 4-gram little guy. I was just about to give up when I found it!
Chris Sanders: I found one piece and acquired two others from other hunters in the area. Overall, I appreciate the beautiful fusion crust of this meteorite and how well it contrasts with the inner material.
How did you find your piece(s) (visual, detector, or magnet)?
Steven Dixey: All visual. Most spotted while driving.
Ed Albin: It was discovered while hunting visually.
Cameron and Jodi Smith: Jodi and I used a combination of visual searching and magnets. Most of our bigger pieces were found visually, while the smaller fragments were pulled from road cracks or tall grass with magnets.
Steve Arnold: So far I have found 4 specimens here. The circumstances of deducing why I was looking in a certain area on the first find (that really stretched the known strewnfield) gives me tremendous satisfaction. I thought there should be something there, and there was!
Preston Allen: It was all sight based. Whether it was myself or others, we would walk straight lines, parallel to each other and scan the ground for dark rocks.
Eric Lyon: I used a combination of visual/magnet to find all of the pieces but once I found a few pieces it was fairly easy to find others just visually, then confirmed with the magnet walking stick.
Dave Kenny: All finds were visual, used magnets only to pick up some road smasher crumbs.
Pat Branch: Fresh falls are always done visually…but tall grass magnet sticks help a lot. This fall was mostly on lawns and streets, so easy visual search.
Ari Machiz: The pieces on the concrete and one piece I found in the grass were all by sight.
Iliana Machiz: This time, my three finds were visual.
Steve Poterala: Visually.
Roberto Vargas: Visual search.
Norman LeBron Jr.: I found it visually. They were easy to spot because the strewn field ran through a well-maintained neighborhood, so we were finding stuff on the sidewalks or in the grass by the street.
Chris Sanders: I found my piece by visually hunting — no magnet or metal detector. It was lying in a parking lot near the rain gutter.
Got any memorable stories to share from the hunt? What stood out about this hunt that was different from others if you have been on multiple hunts?
Steven Dixey: It was a wild two days!!! I returned Tuesday (7/1 – 5 days after the fall) with my wife Michelle to try and find more pieces of the first find (didn’t find any) BUT, she made a great 19 gram find. Her first! She was so happy, and I was just as excited for her. She was bummed she wasn’t able to come down with me the first two days.
Ed Albin: The hunt for this daytime fireball was very fun, but it was extremely hot and humid. It was great to meet other hunters in the field as well. It was also amazing how many relatively small, perfectly fusion-encrusted individuals were found! One memorable story about the hunt was watching Steve Arnold “mowing grass for meteorites”.
Cameron and Jodi Smith: There are aspects of this hunt that are unique, such as being a witnessed daylight fall. It’s also the first to be tracked by over ten different Dopplers. I think I even saw where a satellite saw the bolide. At the end of the day, we don’t drive out to find rocks. Being able to hunt meteorites with my friends that would otherwise be scattered across the country is the whole point. Finding meteorites is bonus.
Steve Arnold: My first two finds here were found by sight using my ebike. It is sooo nice when that tool pays for itself again and again and again.
Just today, I bartered mowing an older gentleman’s lawn in exchange for the access to hunt the property! It took probably an hour to mow it and maybe 10 minutes to scan the square footage. No meteorites recovered, but it was a fun experience and I shared a lot of it in a Facebook Live format.
This hunt has been unique in that the physics of the nearly vertical descent of the asteroid to earth allowed, what appears to be, an overlapping of small specimens over the medium and larger sized specimens. This resulted in there NOT being a large end or a small end of a predictable and typical strewnfield. Quite odd.
Preston Allen: Neither my son or myself have ever found a meteorite until this trip. My son found the first one between the two of us and I doubt he will forget that aspect of this trip. It made my trip when he found one but getting multiple between the two of us was just amazing!
Mike’s Driveway Smasher
On the third day of our meteorite hunt in McDonough, Georgia, I decided to roam the streets near where we’d found stones the previous day. My son, Jerron, opted to stay in the car—June in Georgia brought 90-degree heat and oppressive humidity. I figured I’d walk the edges of the streets, scanning gutters and sidewalks for meteorite fragments. Their dark crust and white interior should stand out among the usual ground debris, though they’re easy to overlook if you’re not paying close attention.
A few houses down from where I parked, I noticed a heavyset man riding a lawnmower, cutting his grass in the morning sun. It felt like any other suburban summer day. As I walked, eyes glued to the ground, I approached his house. Glancing to my right toward his driveway, I froze. There it was—a meteorite fragment, unmistakable with its dark, fusion-crusted exterior and pale interior. I stared for a moment to be sure, my heart racing. One hundred percent, that was it.
I looked up and realized the man on the mower had stopped. He was just sitting there, staring at me, unaware that a piece of the cosmos lay between us on his driveway. I waved, trying to break the ice. “Hey, how’s your day going? Heard of anyone finding black rocks around here?”
He tilted his head, his thick Georgia accent cutting through the hum of the mower. “What do ya mean?”
“Like meteorites,” I clarified.
He chuckled. “I heard about that, but I ain’t found no black rocks.”
I smiled and pointed to his driveway. “Well, some meteorites fell in this neighborhood, and you’ve got one sitting right here.”
He looked puzzled, as if I’d just told a bad joke or was setting him up for a scam. “You serious?”
I introduced myself and learned his name was Mike. I explained that I’d come from Utah with Jerron to chase these kinds of events. “Stones have been found in this area,” I said, “and I know for a fact there are meteorites on your driveway.” As I spoke, I pointed out other fragments I spotted scattered across the pavement. Mike’s eyes widened, and he even started spotting some himself. His excitement was palpable—he’d had a meteorite crash-land on his property! Yet, he seemed almost hesitant to claim any pieces, as if he didn’t want to seem greedy.
As far as I was concerned, the meteorites were his. I was just thrilled to have found them. I encouraged him to take a couple of pieces for himself, and he didn’t mind Jerron and me combing through the edge of his grass and crawling across his driveway, collecting the tiny fragments that had scattered. After a few minutes, Mike offered us cold water and insisted we take one of the two larger pieces. “I only want one for historical reasons, ya know,” he said. “Y’all came clear from Utah. I get it. I only need one piece.”
I thanked him, sipping the water and telling him how great Georgia had been. Mike grinned, his eyes still sparkling with disbelief. “Thank you,” he said as we parted. “You took me to school today.”
It’s funny to think how humbling it is to be on your hands and knees, crawling along streets, poking through gutters, and staring at bits of debris like they’re gold. But that moment—finding a meteorite on Mike’s driveway, sharing the discovery, and seeing his wonder—will be a memory I’ll never forget.
Eric Lyon: The entire hunt was extremely memorable, but getting to connect with all of the friends (new and old) and be a part of the community while finding my first ever pieces made it a trip I will never forget! I will also never forget walking around in the Georgia humidity/heat, I thought being from Arizona would have prepared me for this, but I was very wrong!
Dave Kenny: I have hunted in deserts, including Morocco, southwestern USA and Chile. What stood out for me about this hunt was that it was in an urban setting, so our small hunting team had very pleasant interactions with local people, most of whom were very interested in what we were doing, and loved to see the meteorite samples we showed them. Several of the locals actually found meteorites themselves and brought them to show us. We heard stories about meteorites hitting trees and sheds; people hearing the sound of explosions and then whizzing sounds “like drones”. We felt the excitement of the local people as well as new meteorite hunters finding their first stone. Meteorites can unite people of different countries and cultures in a common fascination for this amazingly rare event.
Pat Branch: I brought my novice brother on this hunt with me. He did not find any, but we did search the areas where large stones were found and apparently missed them! The story of the kid from Aiken SC that found a 168-gram individual was fun. Craig Zlimen was talking with a family on their first hunt and he was describing what they look like and the kid reached down and picked one up and said like this? And yes it was the largest one found at the time.
Ari Machiz: I was really happy to have found Jodi Smith who was teamed up with Steve Arnold. My wife and I are friends with Jodi. We ended up going back to where Steve was. I talked to him for a moment by a warehouse and then went off to look on my own. I walked right to a trailer and found a few stones, and that fast, my hunt was successful.
This hunt seemed to offer more stones to more people than the Junction City fall. Maybe I’m wrong, but a lot of people walked away with material this time.
Iliana Machiz: I just enjoyed afterwards getting together with the rest of the hunters. I liked it more in the rural area to be honest, where you don’t have to be worried about someone telling you, you can’t be there.
Steve Poterala: Lots of great memories. We met a lot of other meteorite hunters, and everyone was extremely nice and welcoming. I am sure the kids will remember the trip forever.
Roberto Vargas: We had a few really great hunters’ dinners, and I think there were a lot of fascinating things about this fall. First, it wasn’t your typical strewn field with a large end and a small end. Instead, large, medium, and small pieces were all mixed together. I believe this is due to the steep angle of entry—videos show it coming almost straight down.
Another interesting aspect was the sheer number of hunters involved and how many first-time finders there were. This was also one of the first hunts I’ve attended where there were meteorite peas.
Finally, finds were happening so frequently during the first two days that many hunters believed this would turn out to be a very large fall, and that the price of the material would be quite low. However, the rate of finds dropped off sharply after the second or third day. Several institutions ended up acquiring most of the larger stones, with one or two exceptions.
Since many first-time finders will likely keep their stones, I’m not actually sure how much of this material will end up making it to the market.
Norman LeBron Jr.: Finding my first piece! I was super frustrated leading up to the find. I had been looking for the black crust, and during this time Roberto had found two broken fragments in the grooves of the sidewalk, with the greyish sides facing up so that the crust wasn’t visible. I felt like I was looking for the wrong thing, and after an hour or two of Roberto finding a few stones, I began to doubt myself. Was I doing it wrong? Were my eyes not working? I felt myself getting irritable in the Georgia heat, so I did some breathing exercises to calm down, and a few minutes later I spotted what became my first ever find.
Chris Sanders: While I was hunting with a few other folks, a dad and his two sons walked up and asked if they could hunt with us. Less than 10 minutes later, one of the kids (standing 5 feet from me) found a large piece that is currently (as far as I know) the main mass. What a great moment for that family! Super exciting for them.
I also had the opportunity to do an interview with ABC news in Atlanta. Craig Zlimen and I were driving around and found them filming near a field. We turned around and asked if they were doing a story on the meteorite, and they were! They were very excited to have us just come up to them with a sample. Made the story a lot more interest :)
Overall, I had a great time…particularly connecting with other hunters, many of which I had talked to online but not met in person yet.
