Africa happens to be home to the largest Meteorite that ever fell on the Earth.
Known as ‘Hoba,’ this renowned world’s largest meteorite is located in Namibia, in the southern parts of the continent.
Experts say the meteorite could also be among the oldest such extraterrestrial bodies to hit the earth surface.
The Hoba Meteorite is believed to have fallen on this planet more than 80,000 years ago.
But it was until 1920 when a local farmer ploughing his land with an oxen discovered the alien rock.
Reports have that the plough hit and scratched what looked like a stone somehow, harder, darker and rather a bit too shiny, almost like a metal.
He reported it as a ‘strange rock,’ which later attracted the attention of scientists and others, who identified it as a meteorite and started digging and removing the soil around it.
It is also heavy; when it fell the meteorite was tipping the scale at over 90 tons in total, though more than 20 tons of it has been lost as researchers keep chiseling pieces away.
The Hoba Meteorite derived its name from a farm known as Hoba West in Namibia.
As it happens, the giant meteorite fell within the farm and is still located within the precinct which is found not far from Grootfontein, an area which lies in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia.
Since it was discovered the meteorite has never moved and this is because of its large mass.
The main visible mass of the huge stone is estimated to weigh more than 60 tons.
The Hoba West Meteorite is composed of about 84 percent iron and 16 percent nickel and with traces of cobalt and other metals.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City tried to purchase the meteorite in 1954 but the deal failed because the management could not move it an inch.
Eventually the site on which the meteorite lies was declared a National Monument in 1955 by the Namibian Government.
However, people could not visit the alien stone 30 more years afterwards.
From 1985 the Hoba Meteorite became a tourist site and now people can visit the site and have been doing so for over four decades now.
Although excavated, the meteorite has not been moved from its location of discovery because of its great weight.
But as we have seen, there are many pieces of the meteorite that have been removed for scientific study and others lost through vandalism.