In 2015, while prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia, David Hole discovered an unusually heavy, reddish rock buried in yellow clay. Believing it to contain gold, Hole took it home and spent years trying to open it using a rock saw, drill, grinder, acid, and even a sledgehammer, all without success.
Maryborough lies in Australia's historic Goldfields region, so Hole was convinced the rock held a valuable gold nugget. However, when he finally had it examined by experts years later, it was revealed to be a rare iron-nickel meteorite, far more scientifically valuable than gold.
"It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it," Melbourne Museum geologist Dermot Henry told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2019.
"That's formed when they come through the atmosphere; they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them."
Unable to open the 'rock', but still intrigued, Hole took the nugget to the Melbourne Museum for identification.
"I've looked at a lot of rocks that people think are meteorites," Henry told Channel 10 News.
In fact, after 37 years of working at the museum and examining thousands of rocks, Henry said only two of the offerings had ever turned out to be real meteorites.This was one of the two.
"If you saw a rock on Earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn't be that heavy," Melbourne Museum geologist, Bill Birch, explained to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Researchers published a study on a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite named "Maryborough," after the nearby town where it was discovered. Weighing 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds), the meteorite was found to be an H5 ordinary chondrite, containing a high level of iron. Using a diamond saw to cut a small section, scientists revealed its internal structure, featuring tiny, crystallized metallic droplets known as chondrules, typical of such ancient space rocks.
"Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration. They transport us back in time, providing clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System (including Earth)," said Henry.
"Some provide a glimpse at the deep interior of our planet. In some meteorites, there is 'stardust' even older than our Solar System, which shows us how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table.
"Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life."
