A doorbell camera in Canada recorded the sound of a meteorite striking, marking a unique event in meteorite observation.
Prince Edward Island: You won’t believe this! A doorbell camera caught the sound of a meteorite crashing down near a home. It’s the first time anyone has recorded this kind of cosmic event with both video and audio.
This happened on July 25, 2024, but the footage just got released. Joe Velaidum and Laura Kelly were out walking their dogs when they spotted some strange star-shaped dust by their door.
Curious, they checked their doorbell camera and saw a meteorite zooming down and hitting the wall next to their driveway. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust, and the sound? It was like breaking dishes or cracking ice.
They collected the debris and sent it to Chris Herd at the University of Alberta for analysis. He confirmed it was an “ordinary chondrite,” a common type of meteorite made of nickel and iron.
Herd thinks this rock broke off from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter ages ago before making its way to Earth. He said this was a big deal because it’s the first time a meteorite strike has been recorded on video and audio in that area.
He mentioned that since it hit a walkway, it was “just pulverized.” When the meteorite entered the atmosphere, it was traveling at about 37,000 miles per hour but slowed down to around 124 mph by the time it hit the ground.
That speed could definitely cause some serious damage. Herd warned that if it had hit someone, it could have been fatal. Velaidum felt pretty lucky, too, since he had just been standing in that spot moments before, grabbing his dog’s leashes.
“If I had stayed there for just two more minutes, I would have been hit by that meteorite,” he said, relieved to have dodged a cosmic bullet.
