Meteorites have furnished almost all the clues scientists have used to piece together a picture the solar system's history. While every meteorite is important, the most significant finds are usually the samples that are found shortly after landing on Earth and quickly analyzed in a laboratory.

Following are the meteorites that many experts mention as the most significant finds to science.

L'AIGLE

In the early afternoon of April 26, 1803 thousands of meteorite fragments rained down on a town named L'Aigle in Normandy in northern France. Until that time, even witnessed meteorite falls were treated with much the same skepticism Sasquach and UFO sightings receive today. The meteoritic bombardment of L'Aigle proved to even the most skeptical critics that rocky debris does fall from the sky. After L'Aigle, meteorite falls were carefully investigated. Many natural science museums endeavored to find meteorites and and build up collections.

ALLENDE

In the wee hours of February 8, 1969 a loud detonation broke the silence of a rural region in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua. It was the explosion of a meteor in the atmosphere, that scattered thousands of meteorites over an area of some 130 square miles. Eventually, residents of the region and meteorite-searching pilgrims collected more than three tons of fragments.

The timing of the fall couldn't have been better for planetary science. It occurred just months before the first Apollo lunar-landing mission. The federal government had spent millions of dollars building sophisticated analytical facilities at universities and federal institutions across the country in preparation for studying lunar samples that would soon be returned by Apollo astronauts. Scientists were eager to test the new equipment, and samples of meteorites proved to be a perfect opportunity. Studies on the samples showed that Allende preserved evidence of the earliest processes of the solar nebula.

MURCHISON

On September 28, 1969 a shower of meteorites fell to Earth near Murchison, Australia. Fragments scattered over a wide area. About 100 kilograms (some 220 pounds) of meteorite fragments were recovered. These fragments also benefitted from analysis in the sophisticated facilities built for the Apollo missions.

Murchison delivered the first evidence that amino acids - the building blocks of proteins and of life - exist elsewhere in the solar system. The meteorite, a type called a carbonaceous chondrite, is a primitive, carbon- and water-rich rock. It provided evidence that organic materials were either preserved from interstellar processes, or actually produced in the solar nebula. The amino acids gave chemists and biologists an opportunity to study pre-biotic chemistry in the solar system. This helps them learn about what ingredients of life were available in early solar system history.

THE MARS METEORITES

In 1983, an analysis of gas trapped in glass crystals of an antarctic meteorite found the gas to be identical to the composition of the martian atmosphere, which the Viking spacecraft measured in the mid 1970s. That study garnered widespread support for the idea that some rocks do come from Mars. Today, 14 martian meteorites have been identified. They are the only known samples of Mars on Earth. With the discovery of the martian meteorites, scientists could begin to study meteorites to learn about nearby planets, not just the very ancient solar system.