In this work Chladni built a case that rock falls were related to fireballs even if the fireballs were not observed. He also reached the conclusion that fireballs because of their very high-speeds, among other characteristics, had to be coming from outer space. At first many scientists were reluctant to accept what seemed like such an outlandish idea, but a rock fall investigated by Jean-Bapiste Biot in 1803 cinched the case. Biot showed that some thousand stones had fallen in an elliptical pattern, just the sort of pattern one might expect from a disintegrating fireball coming down at an angle. A meteorite which was blasted of the surface of Mars and landed in Antarctica.
Some scientists think it contains fossils showing there was once life on the red planet.
Across the sea in the new United States, scientists that were still doubtful of Chladni's theory found themselves confronted by the Weston fireball of December 14, 1807. Two scientists from Yale College recovered 330 pounds of stony material from the path of that fireball. The rocks recovered became the first of a large collection of meteorites that is now housed at Yale University. Further proof of the celestial origin of meteorites was provided by an English chemist named Edward Charles Howard. The most startling thing Howard discovered was that almost all meteorites had a form of nickel alloyed with the iron.