Canadian homeowners returned home in July 2024 to discover a star-shaped pattern of gray dust on a driveway in front of their home in Prince Edward Island.
Curious about the dust, the homeowners checked their security camera video footage and saw a stunning moment: a rock that appeared to be a meteorite falling from space and crashing onto the sidewalk of their home, said University of Alberta scientists who published their discoveries following the accident at the beginning of the week.
University of Alberta
Footage from the Ring doorbell camera shows an idyllic lush setting framed by the security camera for about five seconds when suddenly something appears in the frame and crashes into what appears to be the home’s driveway, from the side with a stone entrance.
The crash sounds like broken glass or a falling pot when the meteorite hits the walkway. Chris Herd, a science professor at the University of Alberta, said it was the first time the sound and image of a falling meteor had been documented on video.
“No other meteorite fall has been documented in this way, with complete sound,” Herd said in a statement. “It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the island.”
Herd – who is also the university’s curator meteorite collection – arrived on the scene 10 days after the possible meteorite crash to document the origin of the fragments found by the owners. They picked up 7 grams of rock from the grass next to the walkway and collected other samples using a vacuum cleaner and a magnet. Herd also measured a 2 x 2 cm divot in the walkway formed by the impact.
University of Alberta
He discovered that the fragments were indeed a meteorite and said it was an ordinary chondrite whose characteristics helped explain why it broke apart when it hit the ground.
Meteors can crash into Earth, but this is often a rare phenomenon. In May 2023, another homeowner reported a meteorite crashed into their roof in New Jersey.
Derrick Pitts, the Franklin Institute’s chief astronomer, told CBS Philadelphia at the time: “For it to actually hit a house, for people to be able to capture it, it’s really unusual and it’s produced very few times in history. »
contributed to this report.