Hoba meteorite, Namibia's very own ‘shooting star’!

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), meteorites are meteoroids (space rocks) that travel through the atmosphere of a planet at high speeds, survive those atmospheric pressures and hits the ground. Excitingly enough, Namibia has one of these extraterrestrial objects in her backyard!  

The Hoba Meteorite is the world’s largest known intact single meteorite and remains one of Namibia’s most intriguing natural wonders. Found and named after a farm called Hoba West in the Otjozondjupa Region, this celestial relic, fell on earth approximately 80,000 years ago and has never been moved since it was learnt off. Discovered by chance in 1920 by a farmer named Jacobus Hermanus Brits.

Photo credits: Gondwana Collection Namibia 

A statement kept at the Grootfontein Museum details the discovery and reads as follows: "I was on a hunt during the winter. I saw the strange rock and went to sit on it and inspect it. Only the top part was visible. While I sat on the rock, the black rock caught my attention because everything around it was limestone. I took my knife, scratched it and found that it was shiny. After that, I went to get my chisel and cut a piece off, which I took to the S.W.A. Company in Grootfontein. The manager took it and came to look at the rock and identified it as a meteorite. I then partly dug out the meteorite, and the manager came to inspect it again. It was estimated to weigh about 80 tonnes."  

 Photo credits: Gondwana Collection Namibia

The Hoba Meteorite is an anomaly in many ways. Unlike most meteorites that leave behind impact craters, this cosmic giant is believed to have struck the Earth’s atmosphere at low-velocity and at a shallow angle. Its descent slowed it down significantly, preventing the formation of a preserved impact crater, allowing it to remain largely intact upon landing. Roughly rectangular in shape and relatively flat topped, it is 2.7 metres long and weighs an estimated 60 tonnes; initial size was recorded to be 66 tonnes but erosion, scientific sampling and vandalism has reduced that number.

The meteorite is twice the size of other known fragments found in Greenland (Cape York) and Argentina (Campo del Cielo (Gancedo)). It is composed of approximately 84% iron and 16% nickel, with traces of cobalt. In 1955, the Hoba Meteorite was declared a national monument and 1987 the owner of the farm donated the site of the monument to the government, then South West Africa for education purposes. Since then, a stone amphitheatre has been constructed alongside an information centre for travellers on the origins of this national treasure.