30-year-old doorstop turns out to be a rare meteorite

A man in Michigan recently learned that a large rock he’d been using as a doorstop for about thirty years is a rare meteorite with an estimated value of $100,000.

According to Central Michigan University, he acquired the twenty-two-pound space object when he purchased a farmhouse, where it was being used to hold open a door.

The man continued to use it for that purpose over the decades, but upon learning that people were finding and selling small pieces of meteorites, he decided to have it analyzed.

It turned out to be “an iron-nickel meteorite with about 88 percent iron and 12 percent nickel.”

That composition is rare, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. is reportedly considering acquiring the rock.

The man has indicated that he will donate “10 percent of the sale value to the university to be used as funding for students in earth and atmospheric sciences.”