Nearly 4000 years ago, a vast metallic meteorite plummeted at a right angle to the Earth’s surface forming a 1350 sq kilometre crater. The Campo del Cielo, located in the Chaco region of Argentina, is punctuated by the remains of the impact, with the site originally being called the ‘Valley of the Heavens’ by the indigenous people of Argentina.

When 15th-century Spanish conquistadors entered the Chaco province (now modern-day Argentina), they believed that the abundance of metallic nodes was due to volcanic activity. However, this of course is not the case, with scientists believing that the Campo del Cielo meteor likely originated within the Asteroid Belt located between Mars and Jupiter and formed around the same time as the earth: some 4.5 billion years ago. The first report of the objects being written as meteorites was published in 1576; however the indigenous knowledge of the site far predates this.