* Astronomy

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RE: Lorton meteorite

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Lorton Meteorite stars at Smithsonian appropriations hearing

The Lorton meteorite, the one that crashed into a doctor's office in 2010, made a surprise appearance Tuesday at the Smithsonian Institution's appropriations hearing.
Bringing a rare artefact out of a locked warehouse or protective glass case is always bold evidence that few people collect, study and preserve items to the extent the Smithsonian does.
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William & Mary Law School Students Learn about Property Law, with an Asteroid Twist

Two William & Mary Law School students received some unusual training last year: they were able to assist a major law firm with a property rights case involving meteorites. Lillian McManus '12 and Brittany Law '12 will be able to add "space law" to the list of practice areas with which they have experience.
It all started on January 18, 2010, when the Lorton Meteorite fell out of the sky and into the examining room of Williamsburg Square Family Practice, which is located in Lorton, Virginia. The rock was small, only 2x3 inches, but clearly from outer space. Doctors Marc Gallini and Frank Ciampi chose to donate the meteorite to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The landlords of the building, however, claimed that the meteorite should belong to them, and legal arguments ensued.
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Doctors give tennis ball-sized meteorite to Smithsonian Museum

Doctors Marc Gallini and Frank Ciampi have handed over a small meteorite that crashed through the roof of their Virginia medical office last year to the Washington-based Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
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Whatever Happened To... the Lorton Meteorite?

When last we heard, Everybody's Favourite Meteorite was locked up in legal limbo.
The oblong little rock from outer space lighted up the late afternoon sky across Washington on Jan. 18, 2010, and rocketed into a doctors' office in Lorton. Moving at a leisurely 200 mph, it crashed into examination room No. 2 in the Williamsburg Square Family Practice, even though it did not have an appointment.
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Date: Apr 2 09:28 2010

Smithsonian discusses the rare, recent Lorton Meteorite

ON Jan. 18, 2010, a very rare astronomical event occurred in our area as a meteorite crashed through the roof of a medical office building on Richmond Highway in Lorton.

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Meteorite Custody Battle Brewing in Lorton, Virginia

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Perhaps the landlords feel that the Smithsonian, which is chock-full of chondrite chunks -- 14,738 of them, in fact, or about half of the planet's collection of meteorites -- has plenty enough meteor material as it stands. Or maybe they hate helping Haiti! Or maybe the Mutlu brothers would rather see this chance occurrence that no one earned result in a much, much bigger donation to Haiti.
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Around this time each year, geologists from the department of mineral sciences at the National History Museum anxiously await the arrival of hundreds of meteorites that are collected annually from Antarctica. The space rocks are sent thousands of miles first by ship, and then by truck to the museum on the National Mall.
What the geologists weren't expecting when the shipment of 1,010 meteorites arrived last week was that a meteorite would crash down practically in their own backyard. It slammed through the roof of a doctor's office in Lorton, VA, just a half hour's drive away.
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Geologists and meteorite scientists Linda Welzenbach and Cari Corrigan of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History talked about the Lorton, Va., meteorite incident, explaining how it happened and answering questions about things falling from space.
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