In 2015, while prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia, David Hole unearthed a heavy rock that he believed was a gold nugget. The region is historically rich in gold, making his discovery seem like a stroke of luck. Armed with his metal detector, Hole was sure that he had found a prized nugget hidden within the reddish rock, and he was eager to extract it.
However, his attempts to break the rock proved futile. He used a variety of tools, including a rock saw, an angle grinder, and even acid, but the rock remained unscathed. Despite all his efforts, it refused to reveal its secrets. “It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it,” Melbourne Museum geologist Dermot Henry later explained, adding, “That’s formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them.”
After years of frustration, Hole decided to take the mysterious rock to the Melbourne Museum for identification. Geologists there, including Bill Birch and Dermot Henry, confirmed that what Hole had found was not a gold nugget but a rare meteorite.
A Meteorite of Unmatched Value
The Maryborough meteorite, as it was named, is a rare find, weighing an impressive 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds). Unlike the more common gold nuggets found in the region, this meteorite is one of only 17 meteorites ever recorded in the state of Victoria. This made the discovery far more significant from a scientific perspective. The rock’s high iron content and unique characteristics classified it as an H5 ordinary chondrite.
“If you saw a rock on Earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn’t be that heavy,” Birch said. Once the rock was cut open using a diamond saw, the researchers discovered tiny, crystallized droplets of metallic minerals known as chondrules—clues from the early days of our Solar System. These features confirmed that the rock was not only rare but also invaluable to scientific study.
The Maryborough Meteorite’s Scientific Importance
The meteorite is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old, originating from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dermot Henry explained that the meteorite likely “comes out of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and it’s been nudged out of there by some asteroids smashing into each other, then one day it smashes into Earth.” The rock’s journey from the asteroid belt to Earth provides scientists with a unique opportunity to study the early formation of our Solar System.
Meteorites, like the Maryborough specimen, are of great scientific importance because they can contain “stardust” older than our Solar System, offering insight into how stars form and evolve. Some meteorites even contain organic molecules, such as amino acids, which are the building blocks of life.
More Valuable Than Gold
While gold has historically been the symbol of wealth, in the scientific community, meteorites are considered far more precious. As Henry put it, “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).” Unlike gold, meteorites hold the potential to unlock mysteries of our universe, including the origins of life itself.
In Victoria, thousands of gold nuggets have been discovered over the years, but the discovery of the Maryborough meteorite is truly rare. “This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there’s been thousands of gold nuggets found,” Henry noted, adding, “Looking at the chain of events, it’s quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all.”
While the origins of the Maryborough meteorite are still not fully understood, its rarity and value to science far outweigh the allure of gold. The meteorite offers a glimpse into the past of our Solar System and may hold the key to unlocking the origins of life.
By Arezki Amiri from Daily Galaxy