Crusty fireball space mango wrecks US doctor's office

'Fresh, pretty' meteorite blasts startled medics
By Lewis Page • Get more from this author

Posted in Space, 22nd January 2010 14:30 GMT



A "mango-sized" meteorite crashed into a doctor's office in Virginia this week at more than 200 mph, according to reports. The space rock smashed through the roof, an internal wall and an upper floor before shattering into several pieces on a concrete slab.

"Literally an explosion went off," Dr Marc Gullani told local TV station WUSA9.


"It came from the roof, through the fire wall, through the ceiling and hit the ground right here," said his colleague Dr Frank Ciampi.

Nobody was hurt in the meteor strike, and the pieces of interplanetary debris were subsequently identified as being extraterrestrial by a geologist, fortuitously married to the doctors' receptionist.

The bits were then sent for analysis by the boffins from the meteorite collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, who described their arrival as "a special moment".

Dr Linda Welzenbach of the Smithsonian - evidently a woman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of asteroid strikes in America - immediately said "as I recall, this will be the fourth fall in Virginia." She later added that as a connoisseur she considered the alien boulder "pretty" and "very fresh", remarking further that "it's a shame that it broke on impact."

Local residents apparently reported a "brilliant fireball" streaking through the sky, prior to the devastating doctor's-surgery strike. Welzenbach says the blazing passage of the rock through the Earth's atmosphere had melted its exterior, giving it a "fusion crust".

The meteorite is apparently a common-or-garden chondrite, formed out of floating space gumble in the early days of the solar system. Most meteorites found on Earth are chondrites; no sensation is expected in spacegoing-rock aficionado circles.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/22/virginia_doc_office_meteorite/

Great story sister.

I read this the other night and apart from the big factor of "Whoa Heck" ..which it is

I saw one on these occur down here in Melbs OZ two or three years ago with Josie as we were walking home from the city along the Yarra River:

(This vid was taken in WA and was featured on the News the weekend it occurred)

wow, soma, that is way cool...
***
it looks almost exactly like what i saw a couple months
ago while coming down a hill in a pickup at night ....
except the one i saw was chartreuse-colored neon green...
it was awesome - the guy driving the truck saw it, too, altho
he wasn't nearly as impressed as i was.... i looked the next day
and throughout the following week, but there was no press or
publicity that i could find.... i really think it is against all odds that
only two people happened to notice a huge fast moving streak
across a night sky....

From the time I learned that Boeing manufacture Space Based Kinetic Energy Weapons in Australia I feel violated.

What colour does Metal look like at extreme temps? Sniff..Blue :(

Ahh WH mate we were posting at the same time LOL

I didn't know about Boeing making that weapon when I saw what I explained. Even then when I was out of hunting mode I doubted the story of where it ended up hitting the ocean.

I will have to see if I have an email I sent to the President of the Victorian Meteorite Society where even he stated he did not believe the official landing spot

What a great video Soma, thanks for sharing...Winehippie I love your new baby look....LOL and the baby sporting the great hat...lmao.