And I would like to have a piece of meteorite at home as a souvenir. Although this is not a very rare thing, it is still interesting. This is an alien from space. Who knows where he flew and where he came from.
I saw many meteorites in museums, but it is difficult to touch or hold it there. But in such a museum there is probably no problem with that. Even a piece of yourself can be chipped off:-)
Here are the details …
In the northern part of Argentina, there is an area that the ancient Indians called Campo del Cielo, that is, "heavenly field". According to an ancient Indian legend, in this area, mysterious metal blocks often fell from the sky, which, later, gave the name to this area. Information about Campo del Cielo is preserved in the old Spanish chronicles. The conquistadors found huge lumps of iron here in the sixteenth century, and used them to make swords and metal spearheads. Especially Erman de Miraville succeeded in this, who in 1576, among the marshy lowlands, accidentally discovered a huge block of pure iron. Subsequently, the Spanish conquistador came to this place several times and broke off pieces of iron from the block, which he used for his needs.
The age of meteorites is mainly determined by the depth of their occurrence in the layers of the earth's crust, or rather, by the traces of these layers on the walls of the crater formed from the fall of a celestial body. According to these data, it is believed that the age of the Campo del Cielo meteorite is 4-6 thousand years. It is considered the second largest meteorite in the world ever found (after the "Hoba meteorite").
In 1783, the head of one of the Argentine provinces, Don Rubin de Celis, relying on the documents of the Spaniards, organized an expedition to the iron block. After a long search, the metal lump was found. Rubin de Celis estimated that it weighed about fifteen tons. Despite the fact that later similar expeditions were carried out several times, due to the lack of documents with which it would be possible to find this place, attempts to find the metal block again were unsuccessful.
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Twenty years after the expedition of the prefect Don Rubin de Celis, a meteorite was discovered in the Campo del Cielo area, the weight of which was almost a ton. In 1813, the largest piece of this meteorite, weighing six hundred and thirty-five kilograms, was delivered to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. Soon a piece of this meteorite was bought by the Englishman Woodbine Darish and donated it to the British Museum. Currently, a piece of this space iron is installed on a pedestal in front of the entrance to the museum. Previously, part of the surface of the Campo del Cielo meteorite was polished so that museum visitors could see the structure of the metal by "Widmanstetten figures", which testify to the extraterrestrial origin of this meteorite.
In the vicinity of Campo del Cielo, fragments of pure iron meteorites have been found to this day. Their weight ranges from several kilograms to tens of tons. In 1980, in this area, near the small town of Gansedo, a fragment of a meteorite was discovered, which weighed thirty-three tons and four hundred kilograms. The American scientist Robert Hug came to Gansedo specifically to study the meteorite, who wanted to buy it and take it to the United States, but the Argentine authorities did not give permission for this. Currently, the meteorite found in Gansedo is the second largest of all meteorites ever discovered on Earth. The largest meteorite that fell on our planet is the Hoba meteorite, which weighs about sixty tons. The fact that a large number of meteorites were found in the Campo del Cielo area at different times suggests thatthat in this area the so-called "meteor shower" was previously observed. Proof of this is the large number of craters in the area. The largest of these is a crater called Laguna Negra, more than five meters deep and one hundred and fifteen meters in diameter.
The field is more than 18 kilometers long, and its average width is about three kilometers. In total, there are twenty-six craters in the valley, the largest of which is 115 meters in diameter.
According to experts, the stones hit the ground at a speed of 14,400 km / h. Some meteorites have punched deep holes in the surface. For example, a 14-ton block created a tunnel 25 meters long and about 8 meters deep. The asteroid weighed about 600 tons before being blown apart upon entering the atmosphere.
In 1961, Professor Cassidy from Columbia University, who was the world's largest expert on meteorites, came to Campo del Cielo. The scientist organized an expedition that discovered a large number of hexaderies, that is, small meteorites made of metal. The meteorites found by Professor Cassidy consisted of chemically pure iron, the percentage of which reached ninety-six percent. Also, these meteorites contained trace amounts of nickel, cobalt and phosphorus. The meteorites that had been found in Campo del Cielo before this time also had the same chemical composition. It is for this reason that a scientist from Columbia University concluded that all these meteorites are fragments of one celestial body.
But Professor Cassidy was more struck by the fact that the meteorites in Campo del Cielo were found at a distance of seventeen kilometers, while when a large meteorite exploded in the Earth's atmosphere, its fragments scatter in the form of an ellipse for a maximum of one thousand and six hundred meters. As a result of the findings of Professor Cessedi, many other scientists became interested in meteorites in northern Argentina. New expeditions, organized for a more detailed study of Campo del Cielo, discovered new fragments of meteorites even on the Pacific coast. But in reality it turned out that the debris of meteorites that were found in the Campo del Cielo area were also found thousands of kilometers from Argentina - in Australia.
Back in 1937, near the city of Hanbury, meteorites were found here, which were located in an ancient crater about eight meters deep and one hundred and seventy-five meters in diameter. The largest meteorite found weighed eighty-two kilograms. Several smaller iron meteorites have also been found. In 1969, an analysis was carried out to determine the chemical composition of a meteorite found near Hanbury, which showed that the meteorites found in Australia are almost completely identical to those found in Argentina. The area around the city of Hanbury is famous for its many ancient craters. The largest of them reaches a diameter of two hundred meters.
But usually these craters have a relatively small diameter, which rarely exceeds eighteen meters. From the mid-thirties of the twentieth century, excavations began here, as a result of which more than eight hundred fragments of a meteorite, which consisted of pure iron, were discovered. Also near Hanbury, four pieces of one large meteorite were found, the weight of which was two hundred kilograms. After analyzing the meteorites found in Argentina and Australia, Professor Cassidy concluded that several millennia ago a celestial body revolved around the Earth, which could also be the second satellite of our planet. This huge meteorite revolved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, gradually approaching it under the force of gravity.
This process could last more than a thousand years, but in the end this celestial body approached our planet so much that it crossed the Roche border, entered the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated into fragments of different masses and sizes. It was parts of this giant meteorite that were discovered at Campo del Cielo and Hanbury. With the help of radiocarbon analysis, the approximate date of the disaster was determined - five thousand eight hundred years ago. Based on these data, it can be concluded that the fall of a giant meteorite to the Earth occurred already during the existence of ancient civilizations, which left behind written monuments containing also a description of the catastrophe. It was in these descriptions that references to the second natural satellite of the Earth and the catastrophe that was caused by its fall were found. The inhabitants of the Sumera, who wrote on clay tablets,it was the goddess Innana who crossed the sky and gave off a frightening radiance at the same time.
The ancient Greeks confirmed the fall of a giant meteorite in the myth of Phaethon. The mysterious celestial body, which was visible in the sky even in sunlight, was also mentioned in the myths and legends of Babylon, Ancient Egypt and Scandinavia, as well as among the peoples and tribes of Oceania. The theme of a giant meteorite falling to Earth was reflected in the myths of all one hundred and thirty Indian tribes of Central and South America. As noted by the American astronomer Papper, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the description of the second natural satellite of the Earth and its fall found its mention among the tribes and nationalities living at such large distances from each other. The fact is that metal meteorites reflect sunlight from themselves, so they glow very brightly and are clearly visible in the sky even during the day. At the same time, the luminosity of a metallic meteorite,which is called a bolide, exceeds the luminosity of the moon in its brightness.
Due to the fact that the metal asteroid was moving in an elliptical orbit, at certain times it passed very close to the Earth's atmosphere. At this time, the car was in contact with the upper atmosphere and became very hot. The brilliance of its glow was visible even in daylight. As the meteorite moved away from our planet and entered the icy coldness of space, it cooled down. It was the constant change in the temperature of the fireball, according to Paper, that led to the destruction of the meteorite. Fragments and parts of the meteorite were found over a large area from South America to Australia. This fact allows scientists to put forward a hypothesis that the fireball split in its orbit, and then entered the earth's atmosphere in the form of a "meteor shower." The largest pieces of the meteorite fell into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, thus causing waves of unprecedented sizes that circled the Earth.
In the myths of the Indians who lived in the Amazon Valley, it is described that the stars fell from the heavens, the earth was enveloped in darkness and it began to rain, which flooded everything. One of the Brazilian legends says that the water rose to such a height that the land was not visible, and the darkness and rain did not stop. Similar events are also described in the fifth book of the Mayan codex. It says here that the world was crumbling, stars were falling from heaven, crossing the firmament with a fiery train; the earth was covered with ash and shook from the tremors. All these myths and legends describe the events that accompanied the catastrophe - floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Scientists believe that the epicenter of the events associated with the fall of the meteorite was in the southern hemisphere of the Earth. Also, many of the scientists suggest that the events that followed the fall of the meteorite to Earth,were vividly described in the biblical myth of the Flood.
In the myths and legends of the peoples of Babylon, Egypt, Oceania and Ancient Scandinavia, the Indians of Central and South America, information about the "two night suns" over the Earth has been preserved. Sumerian legends tell about the goddess Inanna, who crossed the sky and frightened people with her radiance.
It is the fall of this meteorite that many researchers attribute to the beginning of the Flood. When the largest debris fell into the Pacific Ocean, waves could arise that rolled across the entire Earth's surface several times. That melted the glaciers and could cause a global cooling. You can hear about the fire pouring from heaven, from which there was nowhere to hide, and the cataclysms that came for it, can be heard in almost the history of every ancient people, which were passed down from generation to generation.
Chemical composition:
- 92.6% iron;
- 6.68% nickel;
- 0.43% cobalt;
- 0.25% phosphorus;
- less than 0.05% - gallium, germanium, iridium.