A man kept a rock for years believing it contained gold... The surprise was much bigger!

 

 rock

A man kept a rock for years believing it contained gold... The surprise was much bigger!

In 2015, Australian David Hall was exploring Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, equipped with a metal detector , searching for gold in an area historically known for the 19th-century gold rush. While digging in the yellow soil, he came across a strangely shaped, heavy, reddish rock.
Hall believed he had a golden treasure in his hands, so he took the rock home and tried every possible way to break it: he used a rock saw, a grinder, a drill, and even immersed it in acid, but to no avail. Even a heavy hammer couldn't make a crack in it.
After years of confusion, Hall decided to show the rock to experts at the Melbourne Museum, only to discover the surprise that the rock was not just a stone, but a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite, later named "Maryborough" after the region where it was found.

Heavier than expected... and rarer than gold

The meteorite weighs approximately 17 kilograms. Using a diamond saw, researchers were able to cut a small section of it, discovering that it has a high iron content, classifying it as an "H5 ordinary chondrite." Crystalline mineral droplets known as chondrolites were also found within it, providing clues to the formation of the solar system.
Geologist Dermot Henry of the Melbourne Museum told the Sydney Morning Herald: "If you picked up a stone like that on Earth, it shouldn't be that heavy. These outer protrusions form when a meteorite melts as it enters the atmosphere."

A window into the secrets of the universe

Researchers assert that meteorites represent the cheapest means of space exploration, as they carry evidence about the age and composition of the solar system, and even about the origin of life, because some meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids.
This meteorite likely originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, before being propelled towards Earth by impacts. Radiocarbon dating indicates it struck our planet between 100 and 1,000 years ago, and may be linked to phenomena observed between 1889 and 1951.

Rareer than gold... and more valuable scientifically

What makes this discovery exceptional is its rarity, as it is one of only 17 meteorites found in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second largest chondrite mass after a 55-kilogram meteorite discovered in 2003.
Henry said: "Finding this meteorite is almost an astronomical event, especially considering that thousands of gold nuggets have been discovered in the area, compared to only 17 meteorites."
The study documenting the discovery was published in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria," adding a new chapter to the story of rocks coming from space.