Meteorite Strikes: Doctor's Office Gets Unusual Guest

When working in a doctor's office, you would expect to encounter nothing but patients all day, plus the occasional inspections. But a doctor in Virginia got more than he signed up for, when a meteorite came crashing through the roof of the building. Fortunately, according to sources, no one got hit or injured during the accident. Such a space rock making its way through the atmosphere is relatively uncommon, but instances of this happening have been reported before. We were also telling you last year about the case of a German boy, who got hit in the hand by a small meteorite while walking down the street.

The meteorite that struck in Lorton, Virginia weighed about half a pound (226 grams), as it passed through the roof of Dr. Frank Ciampi's office. While this was happening, the general practice physician was on the second floor of his building, on Monday evening. “It went through the roof. It [then went] through one wall partition and then passed through a particle board ceiling into the floor of an examination room. It's not really big. It's about the size of your fist,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History expert and meteorite collection manager Linda Welzenbach says. She was able to clearly confirm that the rock indeed came from outer space, having burnt in the planet's atmosphere beforehand.

The meteorite was only stopped in its tracks by the massive concrete floor, which managed to halt its 200-mile-per-hour speed. At such a velocity, anyone hit directly would have suffered important injuries, and could have easily died, scientists say. As no one was in the way, the rock broke apart when hitting the floor, but Smithsonian experts were able to find all the pieces, and put them back together. But Welzenbach reveals that many people living around the doctor's office saw the bright streak of light that the meteorite generated as it burnt through the atmosphere.

The expert also manifested her disappointment that the rock broke on impact. She reveals that it is a chondrite, one of the most common types of such objects to fall towards, and reach our planet's surface. “It's pretty, it's very fresh. It's a shame that it broke on impact,” Welzenbach adds. The rock was immediately recognized as what it was by an office receptionist, whose husband is a geologist. Courtesy of a local TV station, the rock was then carried to the museum, which is only 14 miles away from Ciampi's practice, Space reports.