The meteorite rain that fell on the town of L’Aigle in France in 1803 provided convincing evidence of the existence of alien rocks, marking the beginning of meteorology.
Before the 1800s, scientists were skeptical about meteorites. Despite historical records of meteorites dating back to Roman times, the idea of rocks falling from the sky seemed implausible to experts at the time. Most believe they originate from Earth, possibly from volcanic activity, or form when dust particles in the atmosphere fuse due to lightning, as suggested by scientist René Descartes in the 17th century.
In 1794, German physicist Ernst Chladni went against popular belief and proposed in a book that meteorites were of extraterrestrial origin. According to Chladni, they are fragments scattered throughout the solar system and never merged into planets. This may explain the stones falling at high speeds and glowing strongly when entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Chladni also pointed out a correlation between the discovered “fireballs” and instances of falling rocks, along with physical similarities in rocks collected after falls.
Chladni’s hypothesis caused a lot of controversy because it contradicted the views of both Isaac Newton and Aristotle on celestial bodies. His assertions also challenged the popular belief at the time that nothing other than the Moon existed other than stars and planets. Some people support his hypothesis of meteorites originating from extraterrestrial origin, but others firmly reject and support other explanations related to volcanic activity, turbulent ocean currents or lightning. hit iron ore.
A few years after Chladni’s work was published, astronomers began to make breakthrough discoveries that added more convincing to the existence of meteorites in the solar system. In 1801, astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, marking the first discovery of an asteroid. In 1802, Heinrich Olbers continued to discover the asteroid Pallas. Also in this year, two chemists Jacques-Luis de Bournon and Edward C. Howard carefully studied meteorites and found that they had a different chemical composition and mineral content than Earth rocks. These new discoveries gradually support the view that meteorites come from extraterrestrials.
Early in the afternoon of April 26, 1803, the town of L’Aigle in Normandy, France, experienced a special event when more than 3,000 meteorite fragments fell. The French Academy of Sciences quickly sent young scientist Jean-Baptiste Biot to investigate this phenomenon. Biot thoroughly researched the field, collected diverse accounts of eyewitnesses, analyzed rock samples from the surrounding area, and finally presented convincing evidence of the extraterrestrial origin of the falling stones. .
First, Biot noted that the composition of the stones was significantly different from any local material, but shared many similarities with stones found in previous meteorite falls. This suggests they share a common extraterrestrial origin.
Next, Biot interviewed many observers and they independently corroborated that they had seen a meteor shower. These people had different backgrounds and Biot believed they could not have cooperated to fabricate a description of an event that did not occur. Biot’s research confirms that the rocks in the L’Aigle meteor shower are of extraterrestrial origin, marking the beginning of meteorology.
Today, a piece of the L’Aigle meteorite along with Angers, another meteorite that fell in France 19 years later, is preserved in a special room at the Muséum d’histoire Naturelle d’Angers, a natural history museum. of France. These meteorites are a tangible reminder of a pivotal moment in the history of science, when skepticism gave way to acceptance and meteorology became a mainstream field of study.