Meteorite strikes doctor's office in Virginia

[January 22, 2010]  LORTON, Va. (AP) -- Doctors at a small practice in Virginia got a big surprise when a tennis ball-sized meteorite punched a hole through their roof. No one was injured.

Dr. Frank Ciampi (chee-AHM-pee) says the rock struck the two-story building around 5:30 p.m. Monday in Lorton, about 20 miles southwest of Washington.

He says they heard a loud bang and found the projectile punched through the roof and ceiling, raining down pieces of wood, plaster and insulation.

The half-pound rock split into three chunks. Television station WUSA took it to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History and experts confirmed it was a meteorite.

They estimated it was traveling about 220 miles per hour when it struck.

[Associated Press]

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