A metal-detecting man was floored to realize the rock he uncovered and believed to be gold was actually from space.
Hole told The Syndey Morning Herald he thought, “What the hell is this thing?” at the time of his 2015 find.
“You’re looking right back to the formation of the solar system here,” geologist Dermot Henry told the outlet.
It is now nicknamed the Maryborough meteorite after the town Hole had uncovered the otherworldly mass.
And its discoverer recognizes he struck gold — from a certain point of view.
It shook his world.
When he discovered a rock he thought was gold, a metal detectorist was shocked to learn it was actually from space.
At nearly 40 pounds, it was incredibly dense for its size, and Australian finder Dave Hole was certain it must have held a nugget of the precious metal. But even a powerful sledgehammer swing was insufficient to dent the rock.
At the time of his 2015 discovery, Hole told The Sydney Morning Herald, he thought, “What the hell is this thing?”.
It became evident that this was not an Earthly object after he took his rock to the Melbourne Museum for examination.
Rather, Hole found a meteorite that was estimated to be 4–6 billion years old in 2019 by experts.
According to geologist Dermot Henry, “you’re looking right back to the formation of the solar system here.”.
He described the rock’s “sculpted, dimpled look,” which developed after it broke through Earth’s atmosphere, and its classification as an H5 ordinary chondrite in a scientific paper.
Now known as the Maryborough meteorite, the unearthly mass was discovered by the town of Hole. It probably only arrived on Earth 200 years ago or less, according to Henry.
Henry told Channel 10 News that the meteorite most likely originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was pushed out of that area by asteroids colliding with one another, and eventually it struck Earth, according to Science Alert.
From a certain perspective, the person who discovered it realizes he hit gold.
“Dude, it was just a potluck. A trillion to one, even better, Hole remarked. The likelihood of getting struck by lightning twice is higher. “.”.
