Falling to Earth over 500 years ago, this iron-nickel meteorite was discovered in 1958 in Nantan County, Guangxi, China. The meteorite, that scattered 9.5 tonnes of debris on Earth’s surface in 1516, is made of an iron alloy, containing about 6% nickel. It originates from the asteroid belt, a group of rocky material that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. There are billions of asteroids in the asteroid belt; some are enormous, while others are as little as pebbles.

A meteorite is formally defined as a solid body of subplanetary mass that either is in space or has come from it and retains it’s cosmic character. Many of the meteorites have softened edges as a result of terrestrialisation, i.e smoothing due to the presence of water. This process creates beautiful and abstract smoothed objects.

The largest fragment found of the Nantan meteorite weights over 2000 kilograms and is on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan.