Across geological time, Minnesota's landscape has been shaped not only by glaciers and rivers but by visitors from beyond the atmosphere — meteorites whose arrivals left permanent signatures in the rock. One impact stands above the rest in scale and consequence, drawing scientists to study it as both a record of the planet's violent past and a reminder that Earth remains open to the cosmos. Geologists read these ancient scars not merely as curiosities of local history, but as evidence that connects a single state's terrain to the broader story of how worlds are made and unmade.