Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2016

SMALL BODIES became mere legends. A pair of centuries later, these tales stimulated the curiosity of a certain Bartolomé Francisco de Maguna who, in the name of the vice-king from Chile and Peru, in 1774 rediscov- ered the metallic bulk and renamed it Mesón de Fierro. Aside from gathering some samples, de Maguna also estimated the metallic bulk’s weight as about 20 tons. Two years later, the expedi- tion was repeated as well as the gathering of samples from the meteorite, and the participants also created maps and drawings, but they were lost. In the years and decades that followed, new expedi- tions reached Campo del Cielo, several samples were sent and analyzed in Spain and England, and many estimates regard- ing weight and sizes were made for the Mesón de Fierro. But over time and with the enlargement of the area where objects with great sizes were found, the Mesón de Fierro stopped being an attraction and fell On that place, the expedition effectively found a metallic bulk that emerged from the soil, which they named Fierro del Tucu- mán. Not believing it could have fallen from the sky, they convinced themselves that this was nothing but a simple mining vein. After gather- ing several samples, which seemed to be made of particular- ly pure iron, the ex- plorers came back the same way and reported to the gov- ernor, which com- municated the facts to the Spanish mon- archy. Maybe due to the apparent smallness of the found metal, the first expedition did not have any follow up, Campo del Cielo was for- gotten and the tales of the natives T he biggest known me- teorite is Hoba, discovered in Na- mibia almost a century ago. Its estimated weight is more than 60 tons. The pres- ence of tourists gives an idea of its sizes. At the right, El Santa- gueño, one of the biggest meteor- ites discovered in Campo del Cielo. [Instituto Turismo Chaco]