Hoba Meteorite
Attractions "Hoba Meteorite, Namibia's Fallen Star"
The discoverer of Namibia's 'fallen star', Jacobus Hermanus Brits, wrote as follows in his memoirs:
"From 1920 onwards I lived on the farm Hoba West On one occasion, two or three years into my life
there, whilst hunting I came upon a peculiar rock of which only the upper part was visible. Its bl
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The discoverer of Namibia's 'fallen star', Jacobus Hermanus Brits, wrote as follows in his memoirs:
"From 1920 onwards I lived on the farm Hoba West On one occasion, two or three years into my life
there, whilst hunting I came upon a peculiar rock of which only the upper part was visible. Its blackened appearance stood out conspicuously from the surrounding yellow-white limestone.
"I scraped the surface of the rock with a knife and noticed that it was shiny. I fetched a chisel, chipped off a small portion of it, and took it to the SWA Company in Grootfontein. The director examined it, investigated the rock on my farm and concluded that it was a meteorite. After it had been partially excavated its weight was estimated at eighty tons."
The Smithsonian Institute in the US's subsequent findings were almost identical to those of the Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahngesellschaft (OMEG) in 1929
(The original of Brits's report is housed in the Old Fort Museum In Grootfonteln.)
The Hoba meteorite comprises 82.30% iron, 16.4% nickel and small amounts of other minerals. It is classified as an ataxite, a structure-less relatively rare and very dense iron meteorite. Scientists were also able to determine its age fairly accurately at 80 000 years - a good deal younger, therefore, than the earth. However, no one can possibly know for how long this inter-stellar rock had been hurtling through space before ending up on our planet. ( Matthias Bleks )
In 1955 the Hoba meteorite was declared a national monument. Hide
The Smithsonian Institute in the US's subsequent findings were almost identical to those of the Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahngesellschaft (OMEG) in 1929
(The original of Brits's report is housed in the Old Fort Museum In Grootfonteln.)
The Hoba meteorite comprises 82.30% iron, 16.4% nickel and small amounts of other minerals. It is classified as an ataxite, a structure-less relatively rare and very dense iron meteorite. Scientists were also able to determine its age fairly accurately at 80 000 years - a good deal younger, therefore, than the earth. However, no one can possibly know for how long this inter-stellar rock had been hurtling through space before ending up on our planet. ( Matthias Bleks )
In 1955 the Hoba meteorite was declared a national monument. Hide
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