David Hole was a prospector in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne in 2015.
Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary – a very heavy, reddish rock resting in some yellow clay.
He took it home and tried everything to open it, sure that there was a gold nugget inside the rock – after all, Maryborough is in the Goldfields region, where the Australian gold rush peaked in the 19th century.
Hole used a drill, an angle grinder and a rock saw to open his find. He even used acid to douse it. The crack was impossible to open with a sledgehammer. Because the gold nugget he was trying to open was not even a sledgehammer.
He discovered it to be a rare meteorite years later.
Dermot Henry, Melbourne Museum geologist, said that it had a sculpted, dimpled appearance. Telled The Sydney Morning Herald2019
“That’s formed when the atmosphere melts them on the outside. The atmosphere shapes them.”
Hole, who was unable or unwilling to open the rock, was nevertheless intrigued and took the nugget into the Melbourne Museum to verify its identity.
Henry stated that he had seen many rocks thought to be meteorites.
Henry claimed that after 37 years spent at the museum, examining thousands upon thousands of rocks, only two of the offered meteorites had ever been found.
This was one.
Maryborough meteorite, with slab cut from mass. (Melbourne Museum)
Bill Birch (Melbourne Museum geologist) said, “If you saw something on Earth like that, and you picked them up, it shouldn’t weigh that much.” This is how it works The Sydney Morning Herald.
The scientists published a scientific report describing the 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite.
It weighed in at 17 kg (37.5 pounds). Researchers used a diamond saw to remove a small piece. They discovered that it contained a high amount of iron. H5 ordinary chondrite.
You can see tiny crystallized drops of metallic minerals within the glass once it is opened. Chondrules.
“Meteorites are the most affordable form of space exploration. They can transport us back in the past, giving clues about the age, formation and chemistry of our Solar System (including Earth). Henry.
“Some give a glimpse of the deep inside of our planet. Some meteorites contain’stardust’ that is older than our Solar System. This shows how stars form and evolve to make elements of the periodic tables.
“Other rare meteorites may contain organic molecules like amino acids, the building blocks of living things.”
A slab made from Maryborough meteorite. (Birch et al., PRSV, 2019)
The researchers aren’t sure where the meteorite originated or how long it was on Earth but they do know some things.
The Solar System was once made up of a lot of dust and chondrite stones. The rest of the material ended up in huge amounts due to gravity. asteroid belt.
“This particular meteorite probably came out of the asteroid Belt between Mars JupiterHenry explained that the asteroids have pushed it out of their orbits, and then it eventually smashes into Earth.” Henry said to Channel 10 News.
Carbon dating indicates that the meteorite was on Earth for between 100-1,000 years. There have been many meteor sightings in the period 1889-1951 which could indicate its arrival on Earth.
Researchers argue that Maryborough meteorite, which is far rarer than gold in science, is far more valuable. It is one of 17 meteorites that have been recorded in Victoria, Australia. After a 55-kilogram specimen, it is the second largest chondritic material.
Henry explained to Channel 10 News that “This is only 17th meteorite located in Victoria”, while there have been many thousands of gold nuggets.
“Looking at this chain of events, you might think it’s quite astronomical that it has been discovered at all.”
It is not the first meteorite that took a few years for it to be made into a museum. This is a truly remarkable storyScienceAlert covered the 2018 space rock in 2018. It was covered by ScienceAlert after being owned for 80 years and used as a doorstop before being finally revealed for what it really was.
Now is probably as good a time as any to check your backyard for particularly heavy and hard-to-break rocks – you might be sitting on a metaphorical gold mine.
The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria.
This article was first published in July 2019.
