Meteorites Crash into China, Pieces Now Selling for $7,800 a Gram

Video footage that circulated online shows the fireball lighting up the night sky above the city of Jinghong, which reportedly happened at around 9:40 p.m. Luckily, most of the meteor burned up in the atmosphere, with only a handful of villagers finding meteorite pieces in Menghai county, Shanghaiist reported.

Many villagers and scientists immediately began combing for meteorites in the area, and, by Monday evening, it was reported that over 200 meteorites had been found, according to South China Morning Post.

The government, however, is encouraging the villagers to hand over the meteorites that they’ve found to the scientists, as their value to the scientific field is tremendous.

“Please be rational about the incident and don’t blindly believe in becoming rich overnight by discovering meteorites,” the government said. “Good life is created by your own efforts.”

But there are still those who chose to sell these fragments for more than the market value of gold, which is said to be currently at 266.56 yuan ($41.71) per gram.

As said in the report, the sale for these meteorites can go up to 50,000 yuan ($7,800) per gram, with some of the found fragments weighing hundreds of grams. Usually, the price for these fragments only go for 100 yuan ($15.65) per gram.

Business talk aside, many netizens on Weibo joked about the fireball in Yunnan’s night sky, with some of them even wondering: “Did Thor drop his hammer?”

Featured image via Weibo