- Address: D2859, Hoba West Farm, Grootfontein, Namibia
- Tel: +264 61 244 375
Sometimes nature throws us such secrets, that they are solved not by years, but by centuries. One of these mysteries was a strange stone in the territory of Namibia .
Historical find
It was a dry summer of 1920. This happened in the farm of Hoba West Farm near the city of Hrutfontein . Plowing one of his fields and thinking about the reasons for the poor harvest, farmer Jacobus Hermanus Brits buried the plow in some kind of barrier. Curiosity prevailed, and he rushed to unearth his land. Yakobus tried for a long time to find the edges of the find, and his surprise was boundless when he saw what he had actually unearthed. In those minutes, the farmer could not even think that he would forever perpetuate his name in history. The discovery he found was nothing but the largest meteorite on earth.
The name Goba (Khoba) meteorite received in honor of the farming land, which was found. In shape, it strongly resembles a parallelepiped, and the dimensions are impressive: 2.7 by 2.7 meters in length and 0.9 meters in height. In the photo below you can see the meteorite Goba in all its grandeur.
What is a meteorite?
Goba (English Hoba) - the largest ever found meteorites on Earth. He is still in the place of his fall, in the south-west of Africa, in Namibia. In addition, today it is the largest piece of metal of natural origin.
Interesting facts about the Goba meteor in Namibia:
- Scientists have determined that the Gob meteorite is 410 million years old, and he lies on the site of his fall for the last 80 thousand years.
- During the find he had a weight of 66 tons, today this number has significantly decreased - 60 tons. This is to blame for corrosion and vandals. For information, most of the meteorites that fell to Earth had weight from several grams to tens of kilograms.
- The composition of the Goba meteorite is 84% iron, 16% nickel with a small amount of cobalt, and outside it is covered with iron hydroxide. According to the crystalline structure, the Goba meteorite is an ataxite rich in nickel.
- Museum of Natural History of New York in 1954 planned to purchase a meteorite for its exposition, but there were difficulties with transportation, and Goba remained lying in its place.
- Around the oldest meteorite of the earth is a small amphitheater in which lectures and performances are often arranged. And in a leap year, locals arrange a ritual dance around the stone. Unfortunately, Europeans are not allowed there.
National Monument
When the news of the meteorite at the speed of light flew around the world, thousands of people poured into Namibia. Everyone tried to take himself a piece of memory. Since March 1955, the government of southwest Africa has declared Gob's meteorite a national monument, thus protecting the unique stone from vandalism. Rossing Uranium Ltd. in 1985, financed the government of southwestern Africa to strengthen the protection of the meteorite. And two years later, the owner of the farm Hoba West gave the state a meteorite Goba and the land surrounding it. For better safety, it was decided not to transport the meteorite anywhere, but to leave it in the possession of Hoba West Farm. Soon, the tourist center was opened at this place. Every year the flow of tourists who want to see and touch the Gob meteorite is only growing, and the acts of vandalism have stopped.
Mysteries of the meteorite
Many scientists are still racking their brains, unraveling the secrets of the Goba meteorite in Namibia. And they have several:
- The form of a meteorite is an unusual parallelepiped, such "guests" rarely fall on our planet, retaining an ideal geometric form;
- Goba smooth and has a fairly flat shape, is a dense metal body;
- next to it there is no crater or any other trace from the fall. How could this happen? After all, such a lump had to be scattered into hundreds of fragments during the flight. Perhaps the Earth's atmosphere slowed down when the meteorite fell, and there was no colossal energy release;
- most recently put forward another theory of the fall of the meteorite Gob: hitting the ground, he just ricocheted, bouncing off from the place of falling a long distance, so there are no traces.
Whatever it was, but many questions remain unanswered.
How to get there?
You can rent a car at the airport Grootfontein Airport, which is located just 5 km from the city of Hrutfontein . Public transport to the Goba farm does not go. Also there is a variant of renting a car with a driver. Many tourists choose it, because you have to go across the road, lying in a desert savannah. From Hrutfontein to the meteorite Goba a distance of about 23 km, the journey will take 20 minutes.