GREG BRENNECKA: IMPACT—HOW ROCKS FROM SPACE LED TO LIFE, CULTURE, AND DONKEY KONG
Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong
- Cosmochemist Greg Brennecka discusses the history of meteoritics, beginning with the documentation of a meteor shower in Normandy, France, in 1803 by Jean Baptiste Biot, which validated the celestial origin of falling rocks and proved they fell according to mechanics. In ancient times—such as 4,000 BCE in Iran—iron meteorites were highly valued because humanity could not manufacture native iron at that point, and Mesopotamians interpreted meteorites as significant historical augurs. Despite this early recognition, influential Greek thinkers like Aristotle denied their heavenly origin for 2,000 years, believing the heavens were perfect, a denial that persisted until the thorough documentation of falls in the early 19th century.
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