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#Famous falls

The best-known meteorite falls, from Ensisheim to Chelyabinsk.

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Lessons (1)

How meteorites get their namesEvery officially recognised meteorite has a unique name. Learning how names work helps you read any meteorite label or catalogue.

Courses (9)

The energy of impacts and airburstsImpact energies range from a firecracker to the end of the dinosaurs. This lesson quantifies them, compares airbursts with cratering impacts
Impacts in Earth's historyImpacts have shaped Earth from its formation to the present. This lesson looks at craters, the end of the dinosaurs, modern airbursts and ho
Water and the ingredients of lifeSome meteorites carry water locked in minerals and a rich chemistry of carbon compounds, including amino acids and nucleobases.
Earth's early atmosphere and oceansWhere did Earth's air and water come from? Volcanoes released gases, and meteorites show that asteroids may also have delivered water.
Hazard, risk and planetary defenceSmall rocks hit Earth every day; large impacts are very rare. This final lesson uses ideas of risk, probability and uncertainty to judge the
The kinetic energy of space rocksBecause they move so fast, even small meteoroids carry huge amounts of energy. This lesson uses the kinetic energy equation to explain fireb
Where in the world?Meteorites can land anywhere. But some places are easier to find them in than others. Let's look at a map of the world.
Falls and findsSome meteorites are picked up just after people see them land. Most are found years or thousands of years later.
Meteorites in historyPeople have treasured meteorites for thousands of years. This final lesson visits Ancient Egypt and medieval France, and ends with how to lo

Books (3)

Meteorites ExplainedThe oldest solids in meteorites formed 4,567 million years ago, before any planet. Meteorites Explained shows how scientists know: from the
Meteorites in History and CultureIron beads hammered from a meteorite and buried in Egypt about 3200 BCE. A dagger blade of sky iron in Tutankhamun's tomb. Inughuit kniv
My First Book of MeteoritesA shooting star is a speck of dust burning up 100 kilometres above the ground. This book explains what meteors, meteorites, asteroids and co

Famous meteorites (10)

ChelyabinskThe 2013 airburst over Russia that shattered thousands of windows and reminded the world that asteroid impacts still happen.
EnsisheimThe stone that fell on Alsace in 1492 is the oldest European meteorite with a known fall date that still survives.
L'AigleThe 1803 shower of stones in Normandy that finally convinced scientists rocks really do fall from the sky. Today it seems obvious that rocks
OzerkiA bright fireball over Russia in June 2018 that delivered fresh stones to villagers and scientists within days.
PeekskillThe 1992 fireball filmed by football fans across the eastern United States that ended up in the boot of a parked car.
Sikhote-AlinIn 1947 an iron meteoroid shattered over the Russian Far East, raining tonnes of metal and blasting more than 100 craters.
SylacaugaIn 1954 a meteorite crashed through a roof in Alabama and struck Ann Hodges – the first well-documented person hit by a meteorite.
The Tunguska eventIn 1908 a cosmic body exploded over Siberia and flattened some 80 million trees – the largest impact event in recorded history.
WinchcombeThe 2021 fireball filmed across Britain that delivered the UK's first carbonaceous chondrite – onto a family's driveway.
Wold CottageEngland's largest single meteorite landed beside a Yorkshire ploughman in 1795 – and helped prove that stones fall from the sky.

Meteorite types (5)

CM chondritesWater-rich carbonaceous chondrites full of organic molecules, Murchison and Winchcombe among them.
IIAB ironsHexahedrites and coarsest octahedrites, including Sikhote-Alin. The IIAB irons have the lowest nickel of the major groups, about 5.3–6.4%.
Iron meteoritesAlmost pure iron-nickel metal, mostly from the cores of asteroids that melted and were later shattered.
LL chondritesLow iron, low metal: the ordinary chondrites matched to asteroid Itokawa. LL chondrites have the least metal of the ordinary chondrites, onl
Ordinary chondritesThe everyday meteorite: four in every five falls. Three groups, H, L and LL, from at least three asteroids.

Space missions (1)

NEO SurveyorA planned telescope built to find most of the near-Earth asteroids large enough to devastate a region.

Meteorite minerals (1)

KrinoviteA green sodium chromium silicate found only in the graphite nodules of iron meteorites.

Questions and answers (43)

Are tiny meteorite fragments worth collecting?Yes. Small fragments and micromounts are affordable, take little space and can represent rare types that would be unaffordable as large spec
Can a large fireball's shock wave be dangerous?Very rarely. Most fireballs are harmless, but a very large airburst, such as Chelyabinsk in 2013, can break windows and injure people with f
Can I find meteorites in the UK?It's possible but rare. Britain's wet climate makes meteorites rust away and its green landscape hides them, so almost all British m
Did people long ago see meteorites fall?Yes. People have watched meteorites fall for thousands of years, and some old meteorites were kept in churches and temples as special object
Do meteorites bury themselves when they land?Most small meteorites land at a few hundred kilometres per hour and make only a shallow pit.
Do meteorites make a crater when they land?Most don't. Ordinary meteorites are slowed to free-fall speed by the air and make only a small pit.
Has a meteorite ever been seen to fall in the UK?Yes. Britain has a couple of dozen recorded falls, including Wold Cottage in Yorkshire in 1795, Barwell in Leicestershire in 1965, Glatton i
Has a meteorite ever hit a car or a house?Yes, a few times. A meteorite hit a parked car in Peekskill, USA, in 1992, and others have crashed through roofs. Nobody was badly hurt.
How are meteorite falls tracked by cameras?Networks of automatic all-sky cameras film the night sky. When two or more catch the same fireball, software triangulates its path, works ou
How are meteorites named?Meteorites are named after the place where they fell or were found, usually a nearby town or geographical feature.
How can I teach the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events?Compare two airbursts a century apart, using maps, eyewitness accounts, energy estimates and damage patterns to discuss evidence and risk.
How can I teach the Winchcombe meteorite story?Winchcombe is ideal: a 2021 UK fall recorded by cameras, found on a driveway, rapidly recovered and found to be a rare carbonaceous chondrit
How can meteorites be used in history lessons?Meteorite falls appear in chronicles, church records and folklore, and the scientific debate about stones from the sky is a great case study
How can pupils analyse fireball videos?Pupils can time fireballs frame by frame, estimate angular speed, note colour and fragmentation, and compare videos from different places to
How much space material lands on Earth each year?Estimates vary, but thousands of tonnes of extraterrestrial material reach Earth every year, almost all of it as tiny dust grains rather tha
How often does a Tunguska-sized event happen?Objects about 40 to 60 metres across, like the one that caused the Tunguska event of 1908, are thought to strike Earth roughly once every fe
How often does an airburst like Chelyabinsk happen?Objects about 20 metres across, like the Chelyabinsk meteoroid, are thought to strike Earth roughly once every few decades to a century, mos
How was Meteor Crater shown to be an impact crater?After decades of debate, Eugene Shoemaker showed in the early 1960s that Meteor Crater contains coesite and stishovite and shocked rocks, pr
What are the largest meteorites to fall in Britain?The largest single stone seen to fall in Britain is Wold Cottage (Yorkshire, 1795) at about 25 kg, while the largest total mass from one fal
What happened at Chelyabinsk in 2013?On 15 February 2013 a stony asteroid about 18–20 metres across exploded high above Chelyabinsk in Russia.
What is a fireball?A fireball is an exceptionally bright meteor, usually defined as brighter than the planet Venus.
What is a strewn field?A strewn field is the area over which pieces of a single meteorite fall are scattered, usually an oval shape several kilometres long, with t
What is the most famous meteorite?There is no single answer, but famous ones include Hoba, the biggest; ALH 84001 from Mars; Allende and Murchison, full of clues to the early
What is the oldest recorded meteorite fall?The oldest witnessed fall with a surviving specimen is generally accepted to be the Nōgata meteorite, which fell in Japan on 19 May 861 CE a
What was the brightest fireball ever seen?Some fireballs have been brighter than the Sun. The Chelyabinsk fireball in Russia in 2013 was, for a moment, about 30 times brighter than t
What was the Ensisheim meteorite's journey?Ensisheim fell in Alsace in 1492, was hung in the town church as a sign of wonder, was taken away during the French Revolution and later ret
What was the Ensisheim meteorite?The Ensisheim meteorite is a stone of about 127 kg that fell into a wheat field near Ensisheim in Alsace in November 1492, making it the old
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'Aigl
What was the largest meteorite fall ever witnessed?Sikhote-Alin in Russia in 1947 delivered the most mass of any witnessed fall, an estimated 70 tonnes or more of iron.
What was the Peekskill meteorite?Peekskill is a stony meteorite of about 12.6 kg that fell on 9 October 1992 after a fireball filmed by many people across the eastern United
What was the Tunguska event?On 30 June 1908 a large space rock exploded in the air over a remote part of Siberia, flattening around 80 million trees across more than 2,
What was the Wethersfield double meteorite fall?Two separate meteorites struck houses in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1971 and 1982, an extraordinary coincidence.
What was the Winchcombe meteorite?Winchcombe is a rare carbonaceous chondrite that fell in Gloucestershire, England, on 28 February 2021.
What was the Wold Cottage meteorite?The Wold Cottage meteorite is a stone of about 25 kg that fell near Wold Newton in Yorkshire on 13 December 1795; it is the largest single m
Where can I see meteorites in a museum?Many natural history museums display meteorites. In Britain the Natural History Museum in London and National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh
Who discovered that meteorites come from space?No single person: the German physicist Ernst Chladni argued in 1794 that they came from space, chemist Edward Howard showed in 1802 that the
Who was Edward Howard?Edward Howard was an English chemist who, in 1802, showed that stones from different falls were similar to each other and contained nickel,
Who was Ernst Chladni?Ernst Chladni was a German physicist who, in 1794, argued that meteorites and fireballs come from space, an idea that many scientists then r
Why do collectors prize witnessed falls?Witnessed falls are prized because they are fresh and unweathered, their date and place are known exactly, and they carry a dramatic, docume
Why do historic meteorite falls have special value?Historic falls carry stories, early scientific importance and limited supply, so specimens from them are prized by collectors and museums.
Why do some falls produce thousands of stones?When a large meteoroid breaks apart in the atmosphere, it can shower thousands of fragments over a strewn field, as at Pultusk in 1868 and H
Why do some meteorites break into many pieces?As a meteoroid plunges into thicker air, the pressure on its front builds rapidly.
Why was the L'Aigle fall important?The fall of thousands of stones near L'Aigle in Normandy on 26 April 1803 was investigated by the physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot, whose ca

Meteor showers (1)

The Daytime Beta Taurids meteor showerDaytime Beta Taurids meteor shower: peak around 28 June, active early June to mid-July.

Impact craters (3)

Sikhote-AlinOn the morning of 12 February 1947 one of the largest meteorite falls in recorded history struck the Sikhote-Alin mountains in the far east
SobolevSobolev is a small meteorite crater about 53 m across in the forested Sikhote-Alin mountains of Primorsky Krai, in far-eastern Russia.
Tunguska (airburst, no crater)On the morning of 30 June 1908 an enormous explosion shook the forests near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia.

Impact events (5)

Chelyabinsk, 2013The airburst that injured about 1,500 people, filmed from every angle. Shortly after sunrise on 15 February 2013, a small asteroid entered t
The Curuçá event, 1930The 'Brazilian Tunguska': a jungle explosion known mostly from one written account.
The sensor record of airburstsHow satellites and microphones keep a running tally of space rocks exploding in our sky.
Sikhote-Alin, 1947The largest iron meteorite fall ever witnessed. On a clear winter morning in 1947, people in the Russian Far East saw a fireball brighter th
Tunguska, 1908The largest impact event in recorded history, and it left no crater. On the morning of 30 June 1908 people across central Siberia saw a bril

Asteroids (1)

Duende (2012 DA14)Duende, first known as 2012 DA14, is a small asteroid that passed exceptionally close to Earth on 15 February 2013.

History (7)

From the Middle Ages to EnsisheimHow Europe moved from omens to science. In medieval Europe, falling stones were usually read as omens. Few were kept, and fewer were studied
L'Aigle, 1803The fall that convinced science. On the afternoon of 26 April 1803, a fireball crossed Normandy and exploded over the town of L'Aigle.
Peekskill, 1992: the car that was hitFilmed by dozens, and it landed on a Chevy. On the evening of Friday 9 October 1992, a fireball streaked for more than 40 seconds across the
Sikhote-Alin, 1947: the iron rainThe largest iron meteorite shower ever witnessed. On the morning of 12 February 1947, a fireball brighter than the Sun crossed the Sikhote-A
Sylacauga, 1954: the woman hit by a meteoriteThe best-documented case of a person struck by a meteorite. On the afternoon of 30 November 1954, Ann Hodges was napping on her sofa in Syla
The Thunderstone of EnsisheimEurope's oldest witnessed fall with the stone still preserved. Shortly before noon on 7 November 1492, a stone of about 127 kg fell with
Tunguska, 1908: the great explosionEighty million trees flattened, and no crater. On the morning of 30 June 1908, a huge explosion shook the forest near the Podkamennaya Tungu

Myths and folklore (2)

The Thunderstone of Ensisheim as an omenA stone that fell as Europe went to war, read as a sign from God. Just before midday on 7 November 1492, a stone of about 127 kg fell with a
Tunguska and the EvenkiHow the people who lived through the Tunguska blast understood it. The forests around the Tunguska rivers were home to the Evenki, reindeer

People (15)

Ann HodgesThe Alabama woman who in 1954 became the first well-documented person injured by a meteorite.
Ashley KingThe Natural History Museum scientist who collected the Winchcombe meteorite from a family's driveway in 2021 and helped lead its study.
Edward HowardThe English chemist who found nickel in fallen stones in 1802, and after whom the howardite meteorites are named.
Edward TophamThe owner of Wold Cottage in Yorkshire, where a 25 kg stone fell in 1795, who put it on show in London and built a monument where it landed.
Ernst ChladniThe physicist who argued in 1794 that stones and lumps of iron really do fall from space, when almost no scientist believed it.
Evgeny KrinovThe Soviet meteorite scientist who studied Tunguska with Kulik and led the field study of the 1947 Sikhote-Alin iron shower.
Jean-Baptiste BiotThe young physicist whose report on the 1803 fall at L'Aigle convinced the scientific world that meteorites come from the sky.
John ShipleyThe Yorkshire farm worker who was only metres away when the Wold Cottage meteorite landed in December 1795.
Julius McKinneyThe Alabama farmer who found the second piece of the Sylacauga meteorite the day after it hit Ann Hodges, and was able to sell it.
Leonid KulikThe Soviet mineralogist who led the first expeditions to the site of the 1908 Tunguska explosion.
Luke DalyThe Glasgow planetary geologist who helped organise the search that recovered most of the Winchcombe meteorite in 2021.
Michelle KnappThe 18-year-old from Peekskill, New York, whose car was hit by a 12-kilogram meteorite in October 1992.
Mira IhaszThe volunteer who found the largest piece of the Winchcombe meteorite in a sheep field in March 2021.
Pyotr MedvedevThe painter who watched the 1947 Sikhote-Alin fireball from his window and sketched it as it happened.
The Wilcock familyThe Gloucestershire family who found black fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite on their driveway the morning after it fell in 2021.

Britain and Ireland (1)

The Aldsworth meteoriteA stone that landed in a field of oats in the Cotswolds after a fireball was seen over Cirencester.

Museums and collections (7)

Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local HistoryThe largest piece of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, about 650 kilograms, lifted from the bed of Lake Chebarkul.
Musée de la Régence, EnsisheimThe town where Europe's oldest preserved meteorite fall landed in 1492, and where the stone is still shown.
Geological Survey of India Meteorite GalleryIndia's national meteorite repository, with more than 600 meteorites including the Martian meteorite Shergotty.
National Museum of Natural History, ParisFrance's national collection, rich in historic French falls such as L'Aigle, Chassigny and Orgueil.
Natural History Museum, LondonBritain's national meteorite collection: about 2,000 meteorites in some 5,000 pieces, including most British falls.
Meteorite Collection of the Russian Academy of SciencesRussia's national collection, with the Pallas iron and the largest single piece of Sikhote-Alin.
Wold Cottage monumentA brick obelisk of 1799 marking where Britain's largest witnessed meteorite landed.

Strewn fields (4)

The Chelyabinsk strewn fieldThe airburst that shattered windows across a city, then scattered thousands of small stones and one giant into a frozen lake.
The L'Aigle strewn fieldThe first strewn field ever mapped, which helped persuade scientists that stones really do fall from the sky.
The Sikhote-Alin strewn fieldThe largest iron meteorite shower ever witnessed, which peppered a snowy forest with more than a hundred craters.
The Winchcombe strewn fieldThe first meteorite fall recovered in Britain for 30 years, found on a driveway and in a sheep field thanks to doorbell cameras and careful

Meteorite law (1)

Meteorite law in RussiaNo law written for meteorites. Pieces of falls such as Chelyabinsk have been collected and sold, but smuggling large specimens abroad has le