Suddenly A Millionaire From A Boulder Of Meteorite

Bongkahan meteor (dok. East News Press Agency/ The Sun)

JAKARTA - A meteorite fell on a resident's house in Satihi Nauli Village, Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra. Interestingly, the meteorite sold at a pretty fantastic price.

Launching The Sun, the meteorite pieces have a high value, even on eBay buying and selling sites, the price offered is 757 pounds (Rp.14.1 million) per gram. Pretty fantastic price for a hunk of rock from outer space.

"Someone called me and asked me to buy a meteor," said a meteorite expert, Jared Collins who lives in Bali.

After receiving the call, Collins flew to North Sumatra to look for the stone, which was found to have hit the house of a resident named Josua Hutagalung (33). Even though it didn't reach billions of rupiah, the meteorite still sold at a fantastic price.

"To be honest, it was in the midst of the Covid crisis and frankly it was between buying stones for myself or working with scientists and collectors in the US. Moreover, I only brought as much money as I could," said Collins after bidding for the meteor stone. .

According to Collins, the meteorite chunks are classified as CM1 / 2 carbonane Chondrite, and are 4.5 billion years old and are an extremely rare variety. Scientists believe the meteorite contained unique amino acids and other primordial elements that could provide clues to the origin of the universe.

The meteorite chunks were immediately sent to the United States (US). Where the stone is then purchased by a collector and stored at the Metorite Study Center at Arizona State University.

Meteorite Fall

The crash of a meteorite experienced by Josua Hutagalung occurred last August. Where a rock weighing 2.2 kg hit the roof of his house.

"I was working on the coffin near the house, then there was a sound of popping from the house. Even the trees and my house were falling apart," said Josua at the time.

Josua did not think that the explosion came from a chunk of a meteor that fell in his house. "The rock was hot, so my wife picked it up with a hoe."

The news that Josua's house was hit by a meteorite made residents excited. He said the sub-district and TNI-Polri had come to his house to confirm the news.

Arrowroot "Deep" Field If we look at the dark sky, maybe we only focus on one or two objects that are interesting according to our vision. As in photo 1, maybe we just focus on the Neowise Comet which is clearly visible with two tails stretched out. pic.twitter.com/esZ5vZsZhi

- LAPAN (@LAPAN_RI) August 13, 2020

It was later discovered that the incident occurred during the Perseid meteor shower. Where according to the LAPAN Space Science Center, the meteor shower occurred around August.

The Perseid meteor shower phenomenon itself is one of the phenomena left behind by the giant comet 109P, also known as Swift-Tuttle. The dust and debris that they shed while crossing the path of Earth's orbit is what causes meteor showers.