A TREASURE hunter was on cloud nine when he realised the grubby piece of rock he thought was gold turned out to be far more valuable.
David Hole hoped there might be a gold nugget inside the rough brown lump, but his mighty sledgehammer failed to even put a dent in it.
The rock (left) turned out to be a meteorite from outer space[/caption]
Geologists Dermot Henry (left) and Bill Birch holding the rock after examining it[/caption]
But he soon realised it was no ordinary piece of rock – it was incredibly dense for its size at almost three stones.
It was only years later an expert told him it was actually an incredibly rare 4.6billion-year-old meteorite.
David found it in 2015 with his metal detector while scouring the yellow clay in Maryborough, near Melbourne, which is famous as the site of the Australian gold rush in the nineteenth century.
It weighed a whopping 17kg – around 40lbs – and appeared metallic with rusty dimples all over.
David hoped he would find gold inside, so took it home and set about trying to crack it open.
A rock saw, a drill, an angle grinder and even heavy blows from a sledgehammer all bounced off the tough surface.
David also tried dousing it in acid but it failed to make a scratch.
“What the hell is this thing,” he said to himself.
The unearthly rock then gathered dust for four years until he took it to be checked at the Melbourne Museum in 2019.
Experts said only a handful of space rocks of this size have fallen in the region in the last century when they checked the rock.
Geologist Dermot Henry said in his 37 years of working in the area he had only come across two genuine meteorites.
He said: “This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there have been thousands of gold nuggets found.
“Looking at the chain of events, it’s quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all.
“You’re looking right back to the formation of the solar system here.
Crash landing
Researchers classified it as an H5 ordinary chondrite meteorite, which means it contains tiny crystallised droplets of metal that formed by flash heating of the dust clouds of the early solar system.
It contains silicates, iron, nickel and magnesium, as well as small amounts of carbon and crystallised water.
It was most likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and was sent off course by a collision.
Carbon dating analysis puts its time on Earth somewhere between 100 and 1,000 years.
Hole knew he struck “gold”.
Even though he did not actually find the precious metal inside the rock, what he did find was a rare piece from the space that was as old as the universe itself.
He said: “It was just potluck, mate. A billion to one – bigger, a trillion to one.
“Got more chance of being struck by lightning twice.”
Precious ‘golden asteroid’ worth $100,000 quadrillion rusting in space
By Alexandra Chomik, Reporter
SCIENTISTS have discovered a unique trait on the metal-rich asteroid Psyche by using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Researchers identified a water component on the mysterious – and priceless – asteroid 16 Psyche, suggesting that hydration exists in the form of rust.
In 2017, researchers discovered traces of water on Psyche’s surface.
“Spectra from the infrared region, at long wavelengths that we perceive as heat but can’t see,” showed signs of the OH molecule, or hydroxyl units, which form part of water, as reported by Live Science.
Those findings, while inconclusive, suggest that Psyche’s surface may contain small amounts of water, either as ice or hydrated minerals.
Data from the James Webb Space Telescope suggests the hydroxyl unit groups are bound to metal on Psyche’s surface, which causes it to “rust.”
Scientists hypothesizing about the asteroid’s composition led to Nasa’s ongoing Psyche mission.
The Nasa mission to visit the asteroid 16 Psyche launched on October 13, 2023.
Nasa’s Psyche spacecraft took off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid by 2029, allowing scientists to study the rock in-depth.
The mission “aims to find crucial clues about the formation of our solar system’s planets,” as reported by Live Science.
Researchers believe the asteroid is composed of rock and metal, with metal responsible for 30% to 60% of its volume, as reported by Nasa.
Plus, with the asteroid’s rare metal components valued at over $100,000 quadrillion, many researchers have nicknamed Psyche as a “goldmine” in space.
The number is based on metal value alone, as there is not enough money in the world to reach that estimated sum.
