A meteorite valued at $ 100,000 used as a stopping point for years

Mona Sirbescu, a geology professor at Central Michigan University, first identified the iron piece of more than 22.5 pounds as being more than a simple door stop when the owner asked her to do so. To consider earlier this year. Although many people have asked him to examine rocks in the past, this time was different.

"I was excited," Sirbescu said.

Meteorites are pieces of broken asteroids that originate in outer space and enter the Earth's atmosphere.

To test his suspicions, Sirbescu immediately began to examine the properties of iron, such as its magnetism, weight, and composition. She sent two small slices to the Smithsonian of Washington, DC to validate her findings. One of his colleagues then analyzed the sample, including using an acid test to reveal the pattern of Widmanstätten, owned by most iron-nickel meteorites that can not be tampered with.

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On January 17, Michigan was hit by a meteorite lightning that shook the state and left small rocks scattered throughout Livingston County as it exploded into the atmosphere.

But this part belonged to a much older asteroid: when the man from Grand Rapids, Michigan, bought his farm in the Edmore area, Michigan, in 1988, the previous owner told him said the threshold was a meteorite dating back to the 1930s. Edmore is about 55 miles west of Saginaw, Michigan, and about 45 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.

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"The story tells that it was collected immediately after witnessing the big boom and that the meteorite was dug into a crater," Sirbescu said, adding that the story had been transmitted without confirmation by eye-witness.

The meteorite is the sixth largest found in Michigan.

Sirbescu added that the use of a nuclear reactor would determine which asteroid it comes from.

As for naming the asteroid: Sirbescu and the Smithsonian agree that "Edmore" is fine.