Named in honor of Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756–1827), German meteoriticist. Generally regarded as the ‘Father of Meteoritics’, Chladni was initially trained as a lawyer. He never held a permanent position, but he travelled among the great cities of Europe giving lectures. It was on these travels that Chladni’s interest turned to meteorites, and in 1794 he published a pioneering book in which he presented convincing evidence that meteorites originate in space. Never before or since has the birth of a scientific discipline been so closely associated with the publication of a single book. (M 22829) _ _.