A couple in Marshfield on Price Edward Island, Canada got a unique surprise on their Ring doorbell camera feed last year. While the owners were out on a walk, their camera recorded the once-in-a-lifetime sound of a meteorite hitting the ground. Thankfully the crash happened with no injuries or major property damage; the only visible leftovers were dust debris, small chunks of the meteorite (which have been sent for testing), and a 2cm crater in the asphalt.
The video above (courtesy of the homeowners and University of Alberta Meteorite Collection) may look non-descript at first glance: it's a small common meteorite hitting the ground on somebody's porch, big deal. However, turn on audio and we're treated with possibly the first ever sound of a terrestrial meteorite strike. Honestly the noise it makes resembles more like somebody dropping a bucket of ice from the roof than a Michael Bay production, but we'll take it for its prominence.
When speaking in an interview with the Canadian Press, owner of the home in question, Joe Velaidum, said that the meteorite "sounded like a loud, crashing, gunshot bang." Just minutes prior to the crash, Velaidum had been standing at the exact spot where the rock landed, stating that he would not have survived the encounter; experts estimate the meteorite that hit his property was traveling at around a blistering 125mph (200km/h).
It was neighbors that alerted Velaidum and his partner about a very loud noise and when the couple saw the impact field, they decided to check the camera recording. With the proliferation of external monitoring cameras nowadays, it's even more often than ever that things like meteorite crashes are recorded. However, unlike Velaidum's recording, those videos are usually silent.
Just to be certain, Velaidum submitted the video to the University of Alberta's meteorite reporting system, which got the attention of Chris Herd, the university's meteorite collection curator. Herd was then able to visit the site to collect debris samples. After closer inspection of the crash site and samples, he confirmed that what landed was indeed a meteorite. Now deemed the Charlottetown Meteorite, scientists have determined that the meteorite is a run-of-the-mill chondrite. These are made up of non-metallic materials that formed in the early periods of the Solar System, but much of the roughly 48.5 tons of meteorite or meteoritic material that hit Earth's atmosphere are chondrites.
That said, fancy yourself catching the next big extraterrestrial rock crash event complete with audio? Mind as well pick up a few Ring cams right now!
Photo credits: University of Alberta