Hoba meteorite

Hoba meteorite, the largest intact meteorite, weighing about 60 tons, that has been found on Earth. It was discovered in 1920 on a farm called Hoba West, located 19 km (12 miles) west of Grootfontein in northern Namibia. The Hoba meteorite dropped from the sky less than 80,000 years ago and has never been moved.

The meteorite was discovered by farmer Jacobus Hermanus Brits, who noticed a strange black rock surrounded by white limestone. Brits chiseled off a piece of the rock and took it to the South West Africa Company office in Grootfontein, where it was identified as a meteorite. Digging around the rock showed that only a small part of it had been aboveground. As more soil was removed, the huge size of the rock was revealed. Because of the meteorite’s remote location, knowledge of its existence did not become widespread until 1929, when Dutch American astronomer Willem Luyten wrote an article about it for a South African newspaper.

The Hoba meteorite is roughly rectangular in shape with a flat top. It measures about 2.7 meters (9 feet) across. Because so much of it survived its impact, it is likely that the Hoba meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere at a shallow angle and hit the ground at the relatively low speed of less than several hundred meters per second. The impact likely formed only a small crater, about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter and about 5 meters (16 feet) deep, that quickly eroded away. The Hoba meteorite is considered to be the largest natural piece of iron on Earth. Its composition is actually about 82.3 percent iron, 16.4 percent nickel, and 0.8 percent cobalt. The meteorite once weighed as much as 66 tons, but scientists and souvenir hunters have chipped away bits of it over the years.

In 1955 the Hoba meteorite was declared a national monument. Namibia, then known as South West Africa, was ruled by South Africa. The South African government wanted to protect the meteorite from vandalism. In 1987 the owner of the farm donated the site of the meteorite to the government. A stone amphitheater was constructed around the meteorite, and a visitors’ center was built nearby. Thousands of people visit the site each year.