Typical analyses include investigation of the minerals that make up the meteorite, their relative locations, orientations, and chemical compositions; analysis of isotope ratios; and radiometric dating.
These techniques are used to determine the age, formation process, and subsequent history of the material forming the meteorite.
Before the documentation of L'Aigle it was generally believed that meteorites were a type of superstition and those who claimed to see them fall from space were lying.
Impacts on the parent body are recorded by impact-breccias and high-pressure mineral phases (e.g. coesite, akimotoite, majorite, ringwoodite, stishovite, wadsleyite).
[15][16] After impact on earth (or any other planet with sufficient cosmic ray shielding) cosmogenic radionuclides decay and can be used to date the time since the meteorite fell.