El Chaco meteorite
Iron from space.
Carlos Zito — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carlos Zito — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Anto Giacomel — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fernando de Gorocica — CC BY-SA 4.0
Campo del Cielo, «Field of the Sky», is a wide area of southern Chaco where, some four thousand years ago, a shower of iron meteorites fell after an asteroid exploded in the atmosphere and scattered its fragments over thousands of square kilometres. Craters and meteorites are still being found today, and the native peoples knew the place long before the Spanish arrived. At its heart is a cultural and natural reserve with a Qom name, Pigüen N'onaxa, where an interpretation centre explains the event with models and screenings and an open-air museum shows many meteorites. Its star is the El Chaco meteorite, among the heaviest known in the world, weighed at about 29 tonnes in 2016, and visitors can touch a mass of iron that came from space. The reserve is about 12 kilometres from the town of Gancedo, far from the big cities, so you need a car. It has a campground with simple facilities, and summer here is very hot.
Iron from space.
Many meteorites.
The shower's story.
Pigüen N'onaxa reserve, about 12 km from Gancedo, southern Chaco
Yes. Many are displayed in the open air, including the huge El Chaco meteorite.