A prospector in Western Australia's Goldfields found a rare australite, a small piece of glassy cosmic debris thought to be about 800,000 years old. The object was discovered in remote country north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Not a meteorite, but a meteorite story
Australites are tektites, glassy objects formed when a large impact melts surface material and ejects it over long distances. They are scattered across Australia and beyond, but each new find can help researchers understand the ancient event that produced them.
The find is satisfying because it joins two treasure-hunting worlds: metal detecting in gold country and the deep-time search for traces of an impact.
A tiny object with a huge blast behind it
The rock-like piece is small enough to hold between fingers, but its origin points back to a violent planetary event. That is the magic of tektites: they turn a handheld object into a map of ancient energy.
