An extremely rare meteorite was discovered in the Zarqa governorate this week, marking an exciting scientific discovery for Jordan.

Abdelkarim al-Omoush told Petra news agency that he first laid eyes on the meteorite while working on his farm in the Srout area.

Omoush decided to call in the experts after suspecting that the extraterrestrial rock's “strange shape and colour” made it more than just a regular Earth rock. He also found it odd that the rock was too heavy for its size.

Jordanian astronomer Imad Mujahid offered to examine the rock using his specialist equipment.

Further tests were carried out at geology research centres at various universities in Jordan, and at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources’ labs.

Lab tests concluded that the new find did indeed come from space, and that the meteorite contains metals and minerals that can only be found in one other place on Earth.

Once the tests were out, Mujahid was excited to share the findings with meteorite experts at US space research centres, who were surprised to find an extremely rare chemical component in the meteor, which has only ever been found in one other place in the world.

Almost all meteorites contain Kamacite, an alloy of iron and nickel, which is found on Earth only in meteorites.

Bonus material

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