Ornans, Meteorite landing site near Ornans, France
Ornans is a location in France where a meteorite fell in 1868 and broke into fragments scattered across a small area. The pieces were collected and studied, revealing details about how these space rocks behave when they enter the atmosphere and strike the ground.
The 1868 event was one of Europe's earliest well-documented meteorite impacts, with eyewitnesses and scientific investigation from the start. The study of its fragments helped shape how scientists classify and understand meteorites from space.
The meteorite represents a moment when sky and earth met in a way that ordinary people could witness and discuss together. The event became woven into the local identity as something that marked the region and remained in collective memory.
To see the main fragments, you will need to visit major museums in Paris or London where they are kept in natural history collections. Plan a museum visit if seeing actual space rocks in person is important to your trip.
Two workers who happened to be nearby witnessed the meteorite strike and watched it create a small crater in the earth. Their direct account made this one of the best-recorded meteorite impacts of its era.
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