A man who had been using a meteorite as a doorstop is set for a fiscal windfall , after get wind it may be deserving $ 100,000 .

The man , who has remain anonymous , got clutch of the meteorite in 1988 when he bought a farm in Edmore , Michigan . The premature owner had been using the meteorite to keep a door clear in a shed , after come across it plunge through the sky with his father .

The new possessor kept hold of the meteorite , also using it as a doorstopper but reserve his children to habituate it for show and tell at school . But when he learn about other meteorites being sell in January this year , he begin to look into selling it .

“ I said , ‘ Wait a minute . I marvel how much mine is deserving , ” he said , the Central Michigan University ( CMU ) state in astatement .

The man , from Grand Rapids in Michigan , take the meteorite to the CMU , where geology mental faculty member Dr Mona Sirbescu hire a flavor at the specimen . And she was able to form out that the rock had a lot more value than just a doorstop .

Weighing 10 kilogram ( 22 pounds ) , making it the sixth enceinte meteorite ever found in Michigan , she meditate it with an X - ray fluorescence instrument to discover it was a uncommon iron - atomic number 28 meteorite , indite of about 88 per centum iron and 12 percent nickel .

Dr Sirbescu has now sent a slicing of the meteorite to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington , DC to verify her finding . If confirmed , the meteorite could be sold to a museum or a collector , with the Smithsonian themselves see purchasing the whole rock .

The meteorite may also contain other rare constituent that could increase its value . The possessor has suppose he will give 10 percent of any sale to the CMU to fund earth and atmospheric science .

meteorite can vary wildly in price depending on what factor they comprise . Common stony meteorites , known as chondrites , can betray forless than $ 25 . But iron - nickel meteorite , being much rarer , can be deserving a thousand time that depending on their composition .

In February this yr , a rare meteorite made of ironsold for $ 237,500at auction . Now this unnamed man will have to waitress and see what his own rock’n’roll is worth . For the rest of us , maybe it ’s time to double check we ’re not accidentally prop a threshold undefended with a cosmic gold mine .