A man in Australia spent years holding onto what he believed was a gold nugget, only to later find out that it was far more valuable than he could have imagined, Science Alert reports.
In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne when he unearthed a heavy, reddish rock resting in yellow clay. Convinced he had found a gold nugget, Hole tried repeatedly to break it open, using tools like a rock saw, angle grinder, drill, and even acid. Despite his efforts, the rock remained uncracked.
As years passed, Hole remained intrigued by the mysterious object. Eventually, he took it to the Melbourne Museum for identification, hoping experts could confirm his discovery. What he learned astonished him: the rock was not a gold nugget, but a rare meteorite.
The meteorite, which researchers later named the “Maryborough meteorite,” weighs 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) and is approximately 4.6 billion years old. The discovery marks one of the few meteorite finds in the Australian state of Victoria, where only 17 meteorites have been recorded. This particular specimen is also the second-largest chondrite mass found in the state, following a 55-kilogram meteorite identified in 2003.
Geologists from the Melbourne Museum, including Dermot Henry and Bill Birch, confirmed that the rock’s heavy, sculpted appearance was consistent with how meteorites melt and shape themselves as they travel through Earth’s atmosphere.
“Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration… They offer clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System and even contain organic molecules such as amino acids, the building blocks of life,” said Henry.
The meteorite’s composition revealed a high percentage of iron, classifying it as an H5 ordinary chondrite. Chondrites are among the oldest materials in our Solar System, and the Maryborough meteorite contains tiny crystallized droplets of metallic minerals known as chondrules. Researchers believe the meteorite originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, possibly ejected into space by asteroid collisions before eventually crashing into Earth.
While the exact timeline of the meteorite’s arrival remains uncertain, carbon dating suggests it may have been on Earth for between 100 and 1,000 years. A number of meteor sightings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries could correspond to the meteorite’s entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Despite the value of gold, the Maryborough meteorite is considered far rarer and more valuable, especially from a scientific perspective. Researchers emphasize that meteorites like this one are invaluable in understanding the origins of our Solar System and the processes that shaped the planets.
