{"id":131323,"date":"2024-11-29T07:24:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T00:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131323"},"modified":"2024-11-29T07:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T00:24:22","slug":"man-keeps-a-rock-for-years-hoping-its-gold-it-turns-out-to-be-far-more-valuable-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131323","title":{"rendered":"Man Keeps a Rock For Years Hoping It&#8217;s Gold. It Turns Out to Be Far More Valuable. : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary \u2013 a very heavy, reddish rock resting in some yellow clay.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>He took it home and tried everything to open it, sure that there was a gold nugget inside the rock \u2013 after all, Maryborough is in the Goldfields region, where the Australian gold rush peaked in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>To break open his find, Hole tried a rock saw, an angle grinder, a drill, even dousing the thing in acid. However, not even a sledgehammer could make a crack. That&#8217;s because what he was trying so hard to open was no gold nugget.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>As he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eHdMmDXsGQc\">found out years later<\/a>, it was a rare meteorite.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Man Thought a Rock Was Gold. It Was Far More Valuable.\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eHdMmDXsGQc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> frameborder=&#8221;0\u2033 allow=&#8221;accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share&#8221; referrerpolicy=&#8221;strict-origin-when-cross-origin&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it,&#8221; Melbourne Museum geologist Dermot Henry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/prospector-s-mystery-rock-was-no-nugget-but-something-much-rarer-20190716-p527pi.html\">told <em>The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> in 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Unable to open the &#8216;rock&#8217;, but still intrigued, Hole took the nugget to the Melbourne Museum for identification.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_145272\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145272\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInMuseum.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in a museum holding a large rock \" width=\"642\" height=\"429\" class=\"size-full wp-image-145272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInMuseum.jpg 642w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInMuseum-621x415.jpg 621w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInMuseum-600x401.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-145272\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dermot Henry and Melbourne Museum geologist Bill Birch with the Maryborough meteorite. (Museums Victoria)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve looked at a lot of rocks that people think are meteorites,&#8221; Henry told Channel 10 News.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>This was one of the two.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 656px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2019-07\/huge-meteor-maryborough-body-image1.jpg\" alt=\"(Museum Victoria)\" width=\"656\" style=\"width: 100%;\" height=\"437\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Maryborough meteorite, with a slab cut from the mass. (<span>Museums Victoria<\/span>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;If you saw a rock on Earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn&#8217;t be that heavy,&#8221; Melbourne Museum geologist, Bill Birch, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/prospector-s-mystery-rock-was-no-nugget-but-something-much-rarer-20190716-p527pi.html\">explained to <em>The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The researchers published a scientific paper describing the 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite, which they called Maryborough after the town near where it was found.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>It weighs a whopping 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds), and after using a diamond saw to cut off a small slice, the researchers discovered its composition had a high percentage of iron, making it a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/H_chondrite\">H5 ordinary chondrite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Once open, you can also see the tiny crystallized droplets of metallic minerals throughout it, called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chondrule\">chondrules<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_145242\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145242\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/Radial-Pyroxene-chondrule.jpg\" alt=\"Radial Pyroxene chondrule\" width=\"642\" height=\"503\" class=\"wp-image-145242 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/Radial-Pyroxene-chondrule.jpg 642w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/Radial-Pyroxene-chondrule-530x415.jpg 530w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/Radial-Pyroxene-chondrule-600x470.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-145242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radial pyroxene chondrule formed in the Maryborough meteorite. (Birch et al., <em>PRSV<\/em>, 2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;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),&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/museumsvictoria.com.au\/media-releases\/meteorite-found-by-gold-prospector-the-first-found-in-victoria-since-1995-comes-to-museums-victoria\/\">said Henry.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some provide a glimpse at the deep interior of our planet. In some meteorites, there is &#8216;stardust&#8217; even older than our Solar System, which shows us how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2019-07\/maryborough-meterorite-close-up.jpg\" alt=\"maryborough meterorite close up\" width=\"700\" style=\"width: 100%;\" height=\"327\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A slab cut from the Maryborough meteorite. (Birch et al., <em>PRSV<\/em>, 2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although the researchers don&#8217;t yet know where the meteorite came from and how long it may have been on Earth, they do have some guesses.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Our Solar System was once a spinning pile of dust and chondrite rocks. Eventually gravity pulled a lot of this material together into planets, but the leftovers mostly ended up in a huge  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/asteroid\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" data-linkid=\"73095\" data-postid=\"145050\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\">asteroid<\/a> belt.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This particular meteorite most probably comes out of the asteroid belt between  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/mars\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" data-linkid=\"73083\" data-postid=\"145050\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\">Mars<\/a> and  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/the-weirdest-facts-about-jupiter\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" data-linkid=\"73113\" data-postid=\"145050\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\">Jupiter<\/a>, and it&#8217;s been nudged out of there by some asteroids smashing into each other, then one day it smashes into Earth,&#8221; Henry told Channel 10 News.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Carbon dating suggests the meteorite has been on Earth between 100 and 1,000 years, and there&#8217;s been a number of meteor sightings between 1889 and 1951 that could correspond to its arrival on our planet.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The researchers argue that the Maryborough meteorite is much rarer than gold, making it far more valuable to science.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s one of only 17 meteorites ever recorded in the Australian state of Victoria, and it&#8217;s the second largest chondritic mass, after a huge 55-kilogram specimen identified in 2003.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_145269\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145269\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInside.jpg\" alt=\"The colorful inside of the meteorite\" width=\"642\" height=\"503\" class=\"size-full wp-image-145269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInside.jpg 642w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInside-530x415.jpg 530w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MaryboroughMeteoriteInside-600x470.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-145269\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barred Olivine chondrule formed in the Maryborough meteorite. (Birch et al., <em>PRSV<\/em>, 2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there&#8217;s been thousands of gold nuggets found,&#8221; Henry told Channel 10 News.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Looking at the chain of events, it&#8217;s quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not even the first meteorite to take a few years to make it to a museum. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/an-80-year-old-farm-doorstop-turned-out-to-be-an-extremely-valuable-meteorite-michigan\">In a particularly amazing story<\/a> ScienceAlert covered in 2018, one space rock took 80 years, two owners, and a stint as a doorstop before finally being revealed for what it truly was.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Now is probably as good a time as any to check your backyard for particularly heavy and hard-to-break rocks \u2013 you might be sitting on a metaphorical gold mine.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The study was published in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.publish.csiro.au\/RS\/RS19002\">Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>An earlier version of this article was published in July 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/man-keeps-a-rock-for-years-hoping-its-gold-it-turns-out-to-be-far-more-valuable\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia. Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary \u2013 a very heavy, reddish &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131323\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}