Hoba - 60 tons of iron.
In 1920, a landowner in Namibia made an accidental discovery while cultivating a field and managed to find the largest and heaviest known meteorite on Earth. The meteorite was later named Hoba after the place where it was found.
An accidental discovery for the reason that there is no noticeable crater anywhere. It is therefore believed that the Hoba meteorite was slowed down in the Earth's atmosphere to a speed of about 1,000 kilometres per hour. The speed of entry into the atmosphere is normally around 35,000 kilometres per hour.
Other theories are that the crater was located elsewhere and the meteorite bounced off the ground.
Over the years, several museums and interested parties from all over the world have sought the meteorite. For example, the Museum of Natural History in New York. But they couldn't move the meteorite because of its weight.
Unfortunately, because of its worldwide popularity, Hoba has also been targeted by vandals in the past, and so this piece occasionally comes up for sale. In 2021, for example, a 2.8kg piece sold for $60,000 at Bonham's auction house. As the price suggests, the Hoba meteorite is very rare, but fortunately for those interested in extraterrestrial metal, there is an alternative in the form of, for example, the Muonionalusta meteorite, which will be offered on our website in the near future.
The meteorite found a new owner in 1987, when the owner of the land donated the site of the find to the state of Namibia. The Hoba Meteorite has been declared a National Monument of Namibia since 1955 and is open to the public.
