L'Aigle (meteorite)

L' Aigle is a meteorite, in L' Aigle, France as a stone rain, so in fragments, fell down on 26 April 1803. He is classified as an L6 chondrite. Its mass, determined from the sum of the masses of 2,000 to 3,000 seized individual items, amounted to at least 37 kg.

L' Aigle plays an important role in the history of meteorite research. Jean-Baptiste Biot created by the Académie Française, a report on the case; the stone was also examined by the chemist Edward Charles Howard and the researchers Louis Jacques Louis -Nicolas Vauquelin and Thénard. Until then, the theory of extraterrestrial origin of meteorites by most scientists, had been particular, also rejected by the Académie Française. It was not until a 1794 Ernst FF Chladni published by scientific treatise on fireballs and meteors, the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial origin of meteorites gradually prevailed. The stone rain of L' Aigle contributed significantly to the fact that meteorites were finally recognized as extraterrestrial objects.