Meteor likely burned up, didn't hit ground, aficionado says

A professional meteorite hunter has called off his search for a meteorite near El Dorado after surveillance video from a Pulaski County farm made it appear that Wednesday night's meteor burned up before reaching Earth.

"It does line up the end spot for us but confirms it burned out pretty high," said Steve Arnold, who drove Thursday from his home in Eureka Springs to El Dorado to search for the meteorite.

"I am not going to continue the search," Arnold said. "I do hope we get a couple more videos from elsewhere, as it should confirm but it possibly could re-adjust the findings to make things look more optimistic for a return later."

Arnold, who was a host of the Discovery television show "Meteorite Men," said Thursday that there was a good chance that the meteor hit the ground, which would make it a meteorite. That was based on dash-camera video from Dallas that showed the fireball streaking across the sky for about seven seconds: https://bit.ly/2NwQYxt.

But he changed his mind after receiving a second video Friday. It was harvested from a farm camera facing south by Patricia Hardwick of North Little Rock.

[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjDgQi09QdA]

"There is a chance something made it to the ground, but there is little evidence the rock broke up, so it may have landed in one piece, and that makes it on its own less encouraging because one rock can often hide," Arnold said. "Multiple rocks over multiple miles really enables the likelihood something can be found by someone."

The fireball, which was visible to people in nine states, streaked across the Central Arkansas sky at 8:17 p.m. Wednesday.

Arnold said security cameras may have filmed the meteor.

He asked that anyone who saw the fireball or has video of it to report the sighting to the American Meteor Society at amsmeteors.org.

By late Friday afternoon, 98 people in nine states had reported to the website listed above that they had seen the fireball. The reports came from Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee.

Arnold also asks that anyone with video of the fireball post it in the comments section of his YouTube video at https://bit.ly/3pYJznw.

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