Life in the impoverished village of Saricicek in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast changed overnight on Sept. 2, when treasure rained down from the sky. The sound of an explosion around midnight, followed by an illuminated sky, terrified the villagers but was soon to send them into rapture.

The mountainous village is in Bingol province, a region where Kurdish militants have long fought Turkish security forces. So residents thought that what they had seen and heard were rockets and bombs being fired in a yet another confrontation. But the owner of Saricicek’s only Internet cafe, Nezir Ergun, noticed black rocks falling onto his garden and soon realized a meteorite had exploded. He notified Bingol University and handed over the chunks to a team of scientists who rushed to the village. 

Professor Iskender Demirkol, the head of the university’s physics department, got in touch with NASA, the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Agency and Istanbul University. NASA’s Peter Jenniskens, a research scientist and expert on meteor showers, was soon in Saricicek. The researchers reportedly concluded that the 230-kilogram (507-pound) meteorite that fell in pieces on Saricicek originated from Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, which NASA has observed from a spacecraft launched in 2007. The meteorite was of the “howardite” type, considered one of the most precious and named after meteoritics pioneer Edward Howard.

However, scientists were not the only visitors rushing to the village. Meteorite dealers from various countries, including Russia, Germany and the United States, also flocked to Saricicek. The villagers learned that meteorites were expensive objects traded globally among enthusiasts. Thrilled, they hit the fields and hills around the village, looking for the precious rocks. People coming from elsewhere also joined the hunt.