McDONOUGH — It only took Ed Albin a few steps Sunday to spot it as he wandered onto an empty construction site in Henry County about 45 minutes southeast of Atlanta.

“Oh my God,” he said, crouching down to take a look at his find, “Oh my God.”

Perched on the dirt like it just fell from the sky isn’t just any old rock. It’s a chunk of the Georgia fireball that blazed across the sky Thursday afternoon and disintegrated 27 miles above West Forest on its way southeast.

In a floppy sun hat and pink shirt, Albin tests the meteorite with a rare earth magnet attached to a metal pole. It gives a faint hint of magnetic attraction, its nickel iron flecks pulling it toward the magnet — proof of its descent from outer space.

Another hunter, Sonny Clary, runs over to take a look.

“Millions of years flying in outer space,” he said, in awe. “How cool is that?”

Most people would easily mistake a meteorite for an average black rock. Maybe that’s what makes them special. They’re cosmic treasures hidden in plain sight.

Hundreds of meteorite hunters have descended on Georgia. They flew in from across the country, packing their bags and abandoning their plans and lives back home for a chance to find a stone from the stars.

Many of them have met before, a niche group that hunts alongside each other each time a meteor — which when it hits the ground becomes a meteorite — comes to Earth. Some are locals or first-time hunters.

But all are united in one goal with equal opportunity at achieving it.

And all of them remember the moment they heard that heart-stopping news: A fireball has landed in Georgia.

Meteorite hunting is both a hobby and a business. Oftentimes, finds in the field pay for expensive plane tickets and travel to get to remote locations — like this Sunday, when hunters scavenged through the “hot spot,” a field marked for construction behind a home development in McDonough.

They can turn quite the profit. Meteorites found from the fireball so far are going for roughly $100 per gram.

The last time a meteor landed in Georgia, in 2022 near Junction city, pieces went for $400 per gram.

Most scientists wait to receive meteorites. They don’t hunt alongside the hunters that chase them around the country. But Ed Albin is different. Though he is an associate professor of space and earth sciences for American Public University and worked as a planetarium astronomer for the Fernbank Museum for 27 years before retirement, as he puts it, he’s “not a stuffed shirt.” He hunts right alongside everyone else. And he’s in it for science. Every small piece of meteorite is enough for geochemical analysis and classification.

The meteorite he found Sunday morning, clocking in at 14.33 grams, could sell for upward of $1,500. But Albin plans to hang on to it — he said it’s the “most beautiful space rock he’s ever collected to date.” He’s not a religious person, he said, but he did say a little prayer while driving to McDonough.

“I was saying, ‘Please, creator of the universe, help me find one of your marvelous stones,’” he said. “And he or she came through.”

He then wrapped the meteorite in a plastic case with a black frame and tucked it in his pocket.

Some of the world’s finest meteorite hunters flew into Georgia for the event. Steve Arnold, star of the documentary “Meteorite Men” on Science Channel, pulled up to McDonough on Sunday morning in his bright yellow truck. He started driving from his home in Arkansas a few hours after the fall, reaching the site at sunrise. He’s not sure how long he’ll stay. In 2003, he stayed in Chicago for 44 days after a fall; in 2008, he stayed for 28 days in Texas.

Though meteorite hunting has become his livelihood, he firmly believes that anyone can do it. A 9-year-old boy found one of the biggest chunks of the Georgia fireball to date on Saturday.

“If a 9-year-old can find one, anybody can find one,” he said.

There’s even a meteorite hunting dog. Her name is Piper. Her owner, Carl Dietrich, who came to Georgia from South Carolina, hunts for meteorites in the field while Piper enthusiastically greets other hunters and nibbles on the tall grass.

Dietrich and Piper have been traveling around the country in his car to hunt meteorites since 2022. Dietrich even has a bed folded up in the back so they don’t spend too much on hotels. Plus, when he goes desert hunting, the bed in the car with air conditioning beats a hot stuffy tent every time.

Dietrich rescued Piper from the pound. She’s a mutt, but he thinks she has some shepherd in her — a hunting dog through and through.

“She’s there for emotional support,” he said, laughing. “She has a blast. She loves seeing all the people, and she loves being outside, too.”

He got into meteorite hunting after watching Arnold’s show on Discovery Channel. When he was 18, he saw a fireball streaking through the sky, and the rest was history.

“I’m really grateful that I got into it,” he said. “It’s a blast, and it’s definitely given me more of a sense of purpose.”

Iliana Machiz and her husband, Ari Machiz, from Mableton, have enjoyed casual hunting since the 2022 Junction City fall, where they made their first finds.

“I started because of him, and I look for them because of him, but I’m not gonna deny that you get adrenaline trying to find them,” Iliana said, holding an umbrella to protect herself from the sun while hunting through the field. “It really feels like egg hunts for adults.”

It’s not about keeping the meteorites, she said, it’s about the chase. Still, she is excited by Albin’s morning find.

“I was telling him, ‘You found a beautiful one,’” she said, laughing. “‘Ninety-nine percent of me is so happy for you, but my human nature says ‘I wish it was me.’”

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