BEATRICE — Brad Kinzie recently moved from Fairbury to get away from the naysayers. Now living in Beatrice, he said he will continue his mission to sell the object he claims fell from space.

“I’m going to sell it to the highest bidder,” Kinzie said. “I don’t need it. I’ve got pictures.”

And a good story.

In the early hours of June 24, a glowing object flew over Kinzie’s head as he watered his front lawn in Fairbury. It smelled worse than a dead cow.

Kinzie and his family thought the object, with its dark pitted surface and weak magnetic pull, was a meteorite.

Not many others latched onto the theory.

“A lot of people called me a crazy idiot and talked behind my back,” Kinzie said.

To prove them wrong, he took the object to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in August. After briefly examining Kinzie’s rock, professor emeritus Sam Treves — who studies the structure, composition and classification of rocks — concluded it was not a meteorite.

Richard Spalding agreed. Spalding is a senior engineer/scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, a government-owned facility that develops technological solutions to support national security.

Spalding contacted Kinzie, who sent the object to Sandia.

“This case ranks pretty high in interest,” Spalding said Tuesday from his office in New Mexico. “I don’t think Brad is a hoaxer or a liar. Plus, this incident is almost too strange to believe or make up and this is not at all the first of similar unusual incidents I’ve heard about.

“The story, while it may seem incredulous to so-called serious scientists, isn’t to me because it’s repeated too often by people with nothing to benefit from telling such a story.”

Spalding first tested it with a counting chamber to find radioactive material. Under ideal conditions, a potential meteorite is counted as soon as possible — days after a fall. He didn’t see this object until nearly two months after it was found.

“It was a long shot,” Spalding said. “We didn’t find anything we could really hang a hat on.”

The object contained about the same amount of potassium and thorium found in typical rocks. However, it also contained unusually high amounts of radium and uranium, which suggested to Spalding it came from coal slag or volcanic material.

One thing’s for sure, Spalding said, it didn’t come from space.

But that doesn’t mean it didn’t fall from the sky.

“There are things we still don’t know about Earth’s atmospheric processes,” Spalding said.

He referred to an incident that occurred earlier this week in Oakland, Calif., where a solid 3-foot ice block fell from the sky. The event is still baffling experts.

“It begs the question, ‘What did happen to Mr. Kinzie?’ Volcanic rock doesn’t just show up in Nebraska. He watched it fall and the smell — I don’t see how a hoax could be that detailed,” Spalding said.

Which is why Kinzie isn’t deterred from his quest to make money.

“I’ll just let people offer me an amount,” he said. “It’s not about how much the rock is worth, it’s the story behind it you’re really buying. Not many people witness a burning rock fall into their lawn.”

Spalding suggested Kinzie hold onto his rock.

“Right now, all the experts have said it’s not worth anything,” he said. “My advice is to hold onto it for the day when science discovers these things are real — that there are similarities in these real events. When science discovers how and why these objects are formed, the objects will have value.”

Reach Jonnie Taté Finn at 473-7395 or tfinn@journalstar.com.

What are meteorites?

Meteorites are pieces of other celestial bodies in the solar system that make it to Earth when a meteor, or “shooting star,” flashes through Earth’s atmosphere at 32,000 mph to 150,000 mph. The majority originate from asteroid impacts. A few come from the moon or Mars. There are three major types: stone, iron and stony-iron.

Source: www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs.html

How much can you make on your space rock?

On Tuesday, meteorite hunters had a chance to bid for some of the world’s most coveted extraterrestrial rocks at Bonham’s New York natural history auction.

Among the highlights: a small slice of the 15.5-ton Willamette, the crown jewel of meteorites on display at the American Museum of Natural History, and a 355-pound iron meteorite from Campo Del Cielo, “Valley of the Sky,” Argentina.

The Willamette is North America’s largest meteorite, deposited by the last ice age and discovered in Oregon in 1902. A sample of this meteorite is worth about $9,000.

The “Valley of the Sky” iron meteorite, 30 by 15 by 14.5 inches, looks nearly the same as it did when it burned through the earth’s atmosphere thousands of years ago. Its estimated worth is $45,000.

For more information, visit the Macovich Collection at www.macovich.com.

—- The Associated Press