Campo Del Cielo Meteorite
 

Weighs 1.5 Grams
Measures 10mm x 10mm 
 
This meteorite is from Argentina, South America. Campo Del Cielo means Valley of the Sky.
 
Campo is classified as a Coarse octahedrite nickel-iron meteorite.
 
The Campo del Cielo iron meteorite fell 4200 - 4700 years ago, about 1000 km northwest of Buenos Aires in Argentina. More than 100 tons of material has been recovered so far with the biggest piece, called 'el Chaco', weighing 37 tons. During impact more than 20 craters were formed in a large area of many square kilometers; the largest crater is about 100 meters in diameter. These craters have various forms; some of them were created when a part of the meteorite hit the ground at such an acute angle that the meteorite bounced back up again, leaving a shallow crater behind. The main body of the meteorite - which had a diameter of at least 5 meters before it entered Earth's atmosphere - broke into pieces after atmospheric entry.
Due to the high speed of the meteorite of several km/s (ten thousand miles per hour) the surfaces of the pieces heated up and melted.
Campo del Cielo 18310 Campo del Cielo was discovered in 1576 by members of the Spanish military, but the site was already well known to the local Indians before this and they probably used parts of the iron for their weapons. In the following centuries several expeditions were made and recovered most of the meteorites. Analysis of the strewn field shows that the meteorite came from the south-west at a very flat angle of just 9°. As with most meteorites, Campo del Cielo originated in the asteroid belt. A collision with another asteroid belt object created the meteoroid and sent it into a new, elliptical orbit. The orbit's closest distance to the Sun lay inside the Earth's orbit, so Campo del Cielo became a so-called Apollo asteroid.