Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A mysterious stone was found by someone in Maryborough Regional Park, near Melbourne, Australia, in 2015. The man named David Hole was amazed by the shape of the stone and thought it was gold.
He then brought it home and tried to dissect the stone. He didn’t know, it was very difficult to break the stone.
Various attempts have been made. Tools such as rock saws, grinders, drills, and acid failed to destroy the stone.
Eventually, Hole took the stone to the Melbourne Museum for expert identification. Unexpectedly, the stone was not gold but a rare meteorite.
“Its appearance is sculpted with dimples. The shape occurs as it passes through the atmosphere, they melt on the outside and the atmosphere sculpts it,” Melbourne Museum geologist Dermot Henry told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2019, quoted from Science Alert, Sabat (22/4/2023) ).
In a scientific paper, the researchers wrote the meteorite named Maryborough was 4.6 billion years old. It weighs up to 17 kilograms and after being cut into small pieces a high percentage of iron is found making it the H5 ordinary chondrite.
Once the meteorite is opened, it reveals tiny metal mineral crystallized drops all over it which are known as chondrules.
“Some provide glimpses of our planet. A number of meteorites, there is ‘stardust’ which is even older than our Solar System how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table,” he explained.
“Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life”.
Researchers do not yet know the origin and how long the meteorite has been on Earth. But they have some guesses, for example the possibility of an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
“This particular meteorite probably came out of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and had been pushed out of there by several asteroids that collided with each other and then one day hit Earth,” Henry explained.
Meanwhile meteorites are on Earth between 100 to 1,000 years from carbon dating. Science Alert links it to meteorite sightings between 1889 and 1951 on Earth.
(fab/fab)
