The sound of a meteorite colliding with the Earth was recorded for the first time: the video was accidentally captured by a door camera
For the first time in history, the sound of a meteorite colliding with the Earth was recorded. And it happened by accident, thanks to a camera on the door of an ordinary residential building in Canada.
Joe Velaidum and his partner Laura, who live on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, were confused when they found star-shaped dust and damage to their driveway last July. After checking the doorbell camera, they noticed an incredible moment when a rock appeared out of nowhere and fell on the walkway, scattering debris around, Metro writes.
After watching the footage, Joe and Laura realized that it wasn’t just some hooligans throwing a rock into their yard. They collected as much debris as they could find, but they were only able to recover about seven grams of the shattered stone.
The collected samples were sent to the curator of the University of Alberta’s meteorite collection, Chris Herd, who confirmed that these pieces of rock were indeed a meteorite.
According to scientists, this was not only the first ever recorded meteorite to land on Prince Edward Island, but the first recording of the sound of a meteorite hitting the Earth that was also caught on camera.
Joe Velaidum said he never would have thought his doorbell camera, which is used to monitor home deliveries, would be able to capture such a miracle.
“As the first and only meteorite from the province of Prince Edward Island, the Charlottetown Meteorite certainly announced its arrival spectacularly. No other meteorite fall has been documented like this one, complete with sound. It adds a whole new dimension to the island’s natural history,” said Chris Herd.
The scientist added that meteorites typically enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 60,000 km/h before slowing down to their final velocity.
And this piece of space rock was probably traveling at about 200 km/h when it hit the ground. This means that Joe was extremely lucky that he had left his house to walk his dogs a few minutes before.
“This is a new sample from outer space. It’s from the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. It has come a long way to Earth,” Chris Herd summarized the rare find.
Comments (0)