An Indonesian man became wealthy "overnight" after a precious meteor worth nearly two million dollars shattered his balcony.
"When I took it, the stone was still warm, and I brought it home," Joshua Hotagalung told the local news site kompas, of the sudden discovery. The 33-year-old coffin maker was reported to be working next to his home in Sumatra last August, when an expensive sliver of space shattered onto his balcony.
"The sound was so loud that parts of the house were shaking as well," Hutagalung said. "After I searched, I saw that the roof of the house made of tin was smashed." The meteor, which weighs about 2.2 kg, penetrating the balcony before burying itself several inches in the dirt.
Hutagalung said he suspected the object was a meteorite "because it is impossible for someone to deliberately throw it or drop it from above.
The British newspaper "Daily Mail" reported that the part that made a fortune, which is estimated at 4.5 billion years old, is likely to be more than enough to put a new roof on the house of the coffin maker. It was classified as CM1 / 2 carbon chondrite, which is an extremely rare type, and the space rock was valued at $ 850 per gram, or a total of $ 1,858,556.
Hutagalung was reportedly paid the equivalent of a 30-year salary for his discovery.
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