A rock used as a door goal for decades proves to be a meteorite worth $ 100,000



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For decades, a Michigan man unknowingly used a meteorite as a bumper. It is the sixth largest of the 12 meteorites found in the state of Michigan. ( Central Michigan University | Youtube )

For 30 years, a man used a meteorite as booty, not knowing that it was a rather valuable meteorite worth $ 100,000. It was only when a meteor crossed Michigan that he wondered if his meteorite was worth anything.

How to identify a meteorite from a fake meteor?

A special door stop

In 1988, an anonymous man bought a farm in Edmore, Michigan, and was touring the property when he saw a large, odd-looking rock holding the door of an open shed. When he asked questions about it, the farmer simply said that it was a meteorite that his father and he had seen coming down on their property in the 1930s and that it "made a lot of noise when it hit". It was still hot when they dug out in the morning and he had been on the farm ever since. As the new owner of the property, the man learned that the rock was part of the property and that he could have it.

The man lived on the farm for years, but took away the rock when he moved away. For 30 years he has kept the rock, also using it as door to door or letting his kids bring it to school to show it. It was only in January of this year that he began to question the value of the rock after a meteor exploded in the skies over Michigan and that He read stories of people selling small pieces of meteorite.

$ 100,000 meteorite

A member of the University of Central Michigan's Faculty of Geology, Monaliza Sirbescu, is often asked if the rock he had in his possession was a meteorite and often she would politely tell them that was not the case it was a "meteorite meteorite." However, this time, when the man took out the meteorite from the bag, Sirbescu said that she knew in a few seconds that it was a true thing.

She cut off a slice of the meteorite and sent it to the Smithsonian who confirmed that the 22.5-pound rock was a meteorite composed of 88.5% iron and 11.5% nickel. It is credited with a potential value of $ 100,000, but it could increase further if further analysis reveals that the meteorite contains rare elements.

Until now, some museums and institutions are interested in the purchase of the meteorite, but regardless of the amount obtained by man for what is now called the "Edmore meteorite" , he promises to give 10% of it to the CMU for students in earth sciences and the atmosphere. department.

Meteorite vs Meteor-Wrong

"Meteor-fake" is the somewhat humorous word used to describe rocks that we mistakenly believed to be meteorites, but which turned out to be mere rocks. As a general rule, meteorites tend to look quite different from terrestrial rocks because they lack quartz and usually do not contain holes or bullet holes.

They could also be observed to be significantly darker than normal rocks, have thumb-like registers and melt crusts, and circulation lines from the moment they burned as they entered. 39; atmosphere. They also feel much heavier in the hand than ordinary rock and will feel atypically dense.

A magnetic test can also help identify meteorites from meteorites, in which meteorites generally adhere to magnets while meteorites generally do not. But the best test for an alleged meteorite is still a laboratory test to confirm its components, especially its nickel component, because while nickel is rather rare on Earth, it is almost always present in meteorites.

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