Carlos Martinez and his 7-year-old son discovered a black rock shaped like a heart about four inches wide.
Martinez thought there was something different about the rock so he went to the library and eventually wound up at the University of Northern Colorado where he showed it to a professor.
"If it was an iron core meteorite, it is pretty easy to identify because of the heaviness of it and it definitely had heavy burns on it," said Professor Bob Brunswig. "It had obviously come through the atmosphere, so it had all the right characteristics."
Brunswig believes this meteorite came down as part of a meteor shower in the last year.
"Finding a meteorite, much less finding one right in the middle of Greeley, is rare," said Brunswig. "They usually don't get this far."
Moving at around 44 miles per second, Brunswig says Martinez is lucky he wasn't standing in his yard when it hit.
CNN contributed to this story
