The remote Australian (former) gold rush town Wedderburn was the scene of a once-in-a-lifetime discovery back in 1951.

A small chunk of rock – later deemed space debris – was just lying there on the side of the road in the north-east part of the town. Gold prospectors did not think much of the nugget – after all, it did not contain any gold – but the scientific community was all over it.

The Wedderburn meteorite packs a big punch when it comes to secrets and mysteries despite its size. Today, a research team from Caltech broke the news. The alien rock contains edscottite, a rare form of iron-carbide mineral that we have never found in nature.

In OUR nature, that is.