Fall
A fall is a meteorite that people saw coming down and then collected.
Scientists sort meteorites into two big groups: falls and finds. A fall is a meteorite that someone saw or heard arriving, which was then picked up soon afterwards. A find is one that was simply discovered on the ground later.
Falls are especially valuable to science because they are fresh. They have spent very little time being soaked by rain or rusted by the air, so their minerals and chemicals are almost exactly as they were in space. One of the oldest falls still kept today landed near Ensisheim, in Alsace (now France), on 7 November 1492. A boy saw the stone, of about 127 kilograms, crash into a field. Part of it is still displayed in the town.
Falls also give a fairer count of what kinds of space rocks reach Earth, because people notice every type, not just the ones that are easy to spot on the ground. You can tell a fresh fall by its black, unrusted fusion crust and pale, clean inside. If you ever see one land, tell a museum or university quickly.
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Level: Beginner Ages 7 and up