Found an error?
Report now
A search using a metal detector has paid off for an Italian man.
Symbolbild: Keystone
Efrem Rigotti actually just wanted to find his car keys. Instead, he came across a mysterious object. Now it's clear: it's from outer space.
A chance discovery in the woods on Monte Bondone turned out to be a minor sensation years later: Efrem Rigotti discovered the first meteorite ever recorded in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige.
As the "Corriere del Trentino " reports, Rigotti was originally only looking for his lost car keys five years ago - using a metal detector. Instead, he came across an unusual stone.
What initially appeared to be a curious object has now been identified as a real meteorite after detailed analysis - the first find of its kind in Trentino and only the 44th in the whole of Italy.
Rigotti brought the piece to the Museo Italiano di Scienze Planetarie in September 2024, where experts confirmed its extraterrestrial origin together with the University of Camerino. The investigations took several years.
Museum director Marco Morelli classifies the find as an exception: They had examined "hundreds of samples over twenty years" - but "for the first time" there was actually a meteorite among them.
The stone, which weighs around 188 grams and has since been named "Meteorite di Monte Bondone", was classified as an ordinary chondrite of type L5 from the asteroid belt.
