Buddha Statue Carved From Meteorite

Scientists report that a 1,000-year-old Buddha statue was carved from a piece of meteorite.

The roughly 9-and-a-half inch statue, which is believed to be of the Buddhist God, Vaisravana, was first discovered by a Nazi-funded researcher in Tibet, who was searching for clues to the Aryan race, reports the German publication Der Spiegel.

The statue represents the only known human figure carved out of the nearly steel-like substance, which derives its strength from a high iron content combined with 16 percent nickel, according to Der Spiegel.

Zoologist and ethnologist Ernst Schäfer first brought the so-called "Iron Man" statue to Europe in the late 1930s.