What was the first space rock people knew had come from space?
People saw stones fall for thousands of years, but scientists only agreed that they came from space after a big fall of stones at L'Aigle in France in 1803.
People have seen rocks fall from the sky for thousands of years, but understanding where they came from took a long time.
Old falls. Ancient records from China, Greece, Rome and elsewhere describe stones falling from the sky. The oldest meteorite whose fall was seen and which is still kept today fell in Japan in the year 861. It is called Nogata and is kept at a shrine there.
Doubtful scientists. In the 1700s, many scientists in Europe did not believe stories of falling stones. They thought people were mistaken, or that the stones were ordinary rocks struck by lightning or thrown out of volcanoes.
Changing minds. In 1794, a German scientist named Ernst Chladni wrote a book saying that the stones really do come from space. In 1795, a big stone fell at Wold Cottage in Yorkshire, England, and was seen by a farm worker. In 1802, an English chemist named Edward Howard showed that stones from different falls were similar and contained a metal called nickel.
The big moment. On 26 April 1803, thousands of stones fell near the town of L'Aigle in France. A scientist named Jean-Baptiste Biot went to investigate. He talked to witnesses, mapped where the stones had fallen and wrote a careful report. After that, most scientists agreed: stones really do fall from space!
So there was no single first meteorite, but L'Aigle was the one that convinced the world.