A Central Michigan University professor helped identify a 22-pound meteorite found by a Grand Rapids man.
The rock was reportedly used as a doorstop by a Grand Rapids man, who came forward with the rock after reading about meteorite fragments being worth a lot of money online.
Professor Mona Sirbescu ran tests on the rock along with the Smithsonian, helping to confirm it was a meteorite. She said the Grand Rapids man bought a barn in 1988.
“When he purchased the farm the meteorite was basically holding the barn door.”
Sirbescu said the meteorite could be valued anywhere between fifty cents to five dollars per gram - but it’s hard to really know how much someone would be willing to pay.
She said the previous farm owners claimed to have dug up the rock in the 30’s.
“We are looking for other sources of information, maybe newspapers, that may correlate these events.”
Sirbescu said she’s received over 500 inquiries from people trying to identify a rock they think is a meteorite. This is the first one that has actually been a meteorite.
“This brings the meteorite discovery to be 0.5% of all of the inquiries I got. Which is still pretty good.”
Sirbescu said the meteorite is the 6th largest found in Michigan and the 12th found overall.