.3. The Orgueil CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorite. The Orgueil meteorite is one of the most extensively documented and thoroughly investigated of all known meteorites. At 8:08 P.M. on May 14, 1864 a brilliant fireball illuminated a large region of southern France and thunderous explosions were heard as the blue-white fireball streaked across the sky, turned a dull red color and produced a long thin white smoke trail (Jollois, 1864; d’Esparbés, 1864). The weather was nice on this spring evening in the south of France. Soon after the explosions were heard, a shower of stones fell within an 18 km east-west scatter ellipse between the villages of Orgueil, Campsas and Nohic (Tarn-et-Garonne). The main fall occurred near the village of Orgueil (43o 53’ N; 01o 23’ E) and villagers collected over 20 jet-black stones immediately after the fall. Many of the Orgueil stones had complete fusion crusts and a few were quite large (one with mass ~11 kg). The Orgueil bolide was so spectacular that many villagers at St. Clar thought they were surrounded by flames. The Marquise de Puylaroque (1864) reported that her house looked like “the interior of a furnace” and she heard a rumbling noise that sounded like firearms and lasted for 2-3 minutes. The detonations were so violent that some villagers thought the event was an earthquake (Bergé, 1864). Eyewitness reports from all over the region were sent to M. Le Verrier, Director of the Imperial Observatory, and to the eminent geologist Academician G. A. Daubrée. These accounts were published immediately (Daubrée, 1864) and English translations have subsequently been made available (Nagy, 1975). The observations of the fireball and timing of the detonations made it possible to set the upper limit for the altitude at which the bolide exploded at 30 km and to conclude that the main part of the meteoritic mass continued to move in its orbit after the explosion leaving “only a few minor pieces of its pre-terrestrial body” (Daubrée and Le Verrier 1864).

However flawed the Hoover paper may be about alien life in the Orgueil meteorite, its description of the meteor's 1864 strike in southern France is arresting.