While many of us have seen the celestial joy of a shooting star, like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, very few people have actually witnessed one hit the ground.
A doorbell camera in Prince Edward Island, Canada, has found that pot of gold, making auditory history by recording the noise of a meteorite falling to Earth – and the first ever meteorite to land on the island.
Meteoroids are rocks or bits of metal that orbit the Sun. When a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere it becomes a meteor, which burns up due to friction with the atmosphere, creating a streak of light known as a shooting star. If the meteor doesn’t fully burn up, it lands on Earth as a meteorite.
In July 2024, Joe Velaidum and his partner, Laura Kelly, witnessed the cosmic event mere steps outside their home, caught on their Ring home security camera that left a 2 x 2 cm dent in the concrete.
The meteorite smashes to the ground just in front and to the right of their front door, making what appears to be a hissing noise, and spraying debris.
The meteorite, which is now in the University of Alberta collection, was later identified as an ordinary chondrite and had travelled from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, hundreds of millions of miles.
After discovering the black debris on his property, Velaidum contacted the University of Alberta curator Chris Herd, who confirmed the rock’s extra-terrestrial origins, dubbing it the Charlottetown Meteorite after its proximity to the island's capital.
“This event is truly unprecedented,” Herd said to CBS News. “It’s the first time both the sights and sounds of a meteorite impact have been captured. From a science perspective, it’s new.”
Velaidum managed to collect about 7 grams of fragments, and analysis showed that it entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 37,000 miles per hour, slowing to 125 miles per hour upon impact.
Velaidum narrowly escaped being hit by the meteorite, saying to CBC News “If I’d lingered just minutes longer, I might’ve been standing right in the impact zone. It’s surreal to think that something travelled millions of miles to land right on my doorstep.”
Only one person in history has ever been recorded being hit by a meteorite. Ann Hodges was 34 in 1954 when, during a nap on her couch in Sylacauga, Alabama, a nine pound meteor came flying through her ceiling. It bounced off a radio before hitting her in the thigh.
The event left Hodges with a dark bruise, a substantial amount of fame, and a long legal dispute with her landlady over ownership of the rock. An image of Hodges' bruise can be seen in Life Magazine. Sadly, her mental health went downhill due to the legal battle and media attention, and she sadly died of kidney failure in a nursing home aged 52.
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