It rocked his world.
A metal detectorist was surprised to find that the rock he saw and believed was gold actually from space,
Incredibly dense for its size at about 40 pounds, Australian explorer Dave Hole was convinced it must contain a nugget of the precious metal. However, even a powerful swing of his hammer could not dent the rock.
Hole told cindy morning herald He wondered, “What the hell is this?” At the time of their 2015 discovery.
After his rock was taken to the Melbourne Museum for analysis it became clear that it was no earthly object.
Instead, the hole discovered a meteorite about 4.6 billion years old, experts determined in 2019.
“You’re looking at the formation of the Solar System here,” geologist Dermot Henry told the outlet.
He explained in detail that the rock – classified in a scientific paper H5 as ordinary chondrite – a “sculptural, cratered form” that formed after breaking through the Earth’s atmosphere.
It has now been nicknamed the Maryborough Meteorite after the town of Hole uncovered the otherworldly object. Henry says it probably arrived on Earth only 200 years ago or so.
Henry told Channel 10 News, “This particular meteorite probably originates from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and some asteroids collided with each other to get it out there, and then one day it hits Earth. Is.” According to Science Alert,
And its discoverer believed from a certain point of view that he had struck gold.
“It was just a coincidence, friend. A billion to one – big, a trillion to one,” Hole said. “Twice more likely to be struck by lightning.”
