Rock and role

If you've been using an old rock as a doorstop, you might want to check and see it's actually a valuable old meteorite.

A guy in Michigan bought a farm "in Edmore, about 30 miles southwest of Mount Pleasant" (like that really helps me figure out where it is) in 1988, and he noticed a 22-lb rock holding open the kitchen door, and the farmer told him that it came to earth sometime in the 1930s, as did Elvis.  The farmer went on to say that he and his father dug out the big rock while it was still warm, and put it right in the kitchen, where it stayed except for all the days when his kids took it to school for Show And Tell.

So after having the rock underfoot for 30 years, the owner sent it off to Mona Sirbescu, a geology professor at Central Michigan University, who has been asked to verify dozens of rocks over the years for meteorite status.

"For 18 years, the answer has been categorically 'no' -- meteor wrongs, not meteorites," Sirbescu says, but when she saw this little boulder, "I could tell right away that this was something special."

It's a meteorite, all right, 88.5% iron and 11.5% nickel. This hunk holds the proud status of being the sixth-largest recorded meteorite ever found in Michigan. 

Professor Sirbescu says this is "the most valuable specimen I have ever held in my life, monetarily and scientifically," and that it's likely worth over $100,000, now that the Smithsonian Institution verified a slice of it as being the real deal.

Now there might be a bidding war for the boulder, as the Smithsonian and a mineral museum in Maine are both considering purchasing the meteorite for display, according to CMU. The owner promises to give 10% of the loot to the university for the study of earth and atmospheric sciences.

In other news, I had a relative whose kitchen door was held open by a big rock. He had it checked. The rock was worthless, but it turned out the door was worth a fortune!