Helen FieldsScience Writer

A doctor in Lorton heard an explosion in his office on Monday. But it wasn’t an explosion, it was a meteorite. (Read the story in the Washington Post.)

It’s crazy, this business of living on a planet. We go around and around the sun, blundering into bits of asteroids that cross our path. We burn them with our atmosphere, melt the outsides til they’re black and shiny, and catch them with the floors of our doctors’ offices. Then they get to go around and around the sun with us, maybe even – if they’re lucky – with their own unique registration number.

Hi, rock! Welcome to Earth!

UPDATE, 1/22: An online discussion on the Post’s website about this story – hosted by two people I met on this day.