Meteorite hunters descend on Va. town

LORTON, Va., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A meteorite that plummeted through the roof of a doctor's office is drawing meteor hunters from across the country to Washington's Virginia suburbs.

Steve Arnold, co-star of the Science Channel's "Meteorite Men," flew from Arkansas to Baltimore Thursday to begin the search for fragments of the meteor alongside amateur astronomer Michael Hankey of Freeland, Md., The Baltimore Sun reported Friday.

The meteorite that crashed through the roof of a doctor's office in Lorton, Va., Monday is about the size of a tennis ball.

Arnold said he and Hankey attempted in vain to find another space rock, the "Mason-Dixon meteorite," that fell over the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line in July, but are more optimistic about finding fragments in and around Lorton.

"In this case, we've got a building with a hole in the roof. There goes all the guess work," Arnold said Thursday. "I'm driving to the hole in the roof right now."

Eric Wichman, a MeteoritesUsa.com collector and meteor hunter, said he is also on the lookout for "baby brothers and sisters" of the Lorton meteorite.

"People should be on the lookout for black rocks, with fusion crust," he said. "Check yards, roads, sidewalks, baseball fields, farm fields or anywhere else meteorites could have fallen."

While Arnold says chunks the size of the Lorton meteorite could be worth up to $10,000, the doctors at the office where it struck and their landlord have donated to the Smithsonian Institution, the Sun said.