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A meteorite that crashed through the roof of a Lorton's doctor office will become part of the Smithsonian's permanent collection.
In exchange for the space stone, the Smithsonian paid $10,000 to Marc Gallini and Frank Ciampi, doctors who run the family practice where it landed.
Gallini and Ciampi in turn wrote a $10,000 check to the charity Doctors Without Borders.
The unusual drop-in at the doctors' office had given rise to an unusual landlord-tenant dispute.
On a January morning in 2010, an object drilled a hole through the roof of the Gallini and Ciampi's Lorton office. Amid debris from the punctured roof, the smooth, tennis-ball sized metorite was found.
The doctors brought the find to the Smithsonian Museum for examination. Officials there said the glass-like outer coating proved that the stone was indeed from outer space. The smooth outer layer had been melted during the meteorite's entry into earth's atmosphere. It weighed half a pound.
Museum officials said that meteorites are not extremely rare, but unusual to fall in the Washington region. According to the Smithsonian, the rule of thumb on meteorite ownership is that they belong to the owner of the property where they land.
That's where the Deniz Mutlu, the landlord who has leased offices to Gallini and Ciampi for the past 30 years, came in. He had claimed that the meteor was his, and he wanted to be the one to give it to the Smithsonian. NBC4's Tom Sherwood said the potential charitable tax deduction is what made the space stone a real gem.
But Mutlu has dropped his claim, leaving it to the doctors to collect their heaven-sent write-off.
