Fragments of a meteorite that hit a house on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in July 2024.
College of Alberta Meteorite Assortment
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College of Alberta Meteorite Assortment
When Joe Velaidum and his companion Laura Kelly stepped exterior on a July afternoon to stroll their canines in Prince Edward Island, Canada, he wasn’t anticipating to come back residence to one thing out of this world.
“We have been startled to search out the walkway suffering from particles. Stones in every single place. They have been scattered in every single place. And at first, we had no concept what brought about it,” Velaidum tells NPR.
In actual fact, Velaidum thought it was one thing that fell off the roof and started to scrub up the grey, dusty materials. Kelly’s dad and mom, who reside close by, instructed them they’d heard a loud bang. They prompt it might have been a meteorite strike.
Velaidum checked his residence safety footage and realized they have been proper.
The meteorite strike is believed to be the primary time the entire sound of a meteorite hitting Earth has been recorded on video, one knowledgeable says.
“I’ve heard that different occasions sound has been recorded, however not like this: The place you see the rock hit the floor, shatter and then you definately hear the sound on the similar time,” Chris Herd, professor and curator of the meteorite assortment on the College of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, tells NPR.
Velaidum says he was fortunate: Simply minutes earlier, he had been standing the place the meteorite smashed in opposition to a brick walkway.
Mud from a meteorite that hit a house on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in July 2024.
Through College of Alberta Meteorite Assortment
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Through College of Alberta Meteorite Assortment
“Had I stayed in that very spot for only a minute or two longer, I would definitely have been struck and doubtless killed by this meteorite,” he says, including that it hit the bottom with “super drive” and left a small dent within the walkway.
Meteors enter the ambiance at speeds starting from 25,000 mph to 160,000 mph, according to the American Meteor Society.
Velaidum reported the incident to the College of Alberta’s Meteorite Reporting System, and Herd retrieved particles samples for testing, which confirmed it was a meteorite strike.
A ‘tough trip’ by way of the heavens
The meteorite — which Herd estimated to have been between the scale of a golf ball and a baseball — is what’s often known as an extraordinary chondrite, probably the most widespread kinds of meteorites that strike the Earth. They’re made up of chondrules, or small, spherical grains of silicate minerals similar to olivine and pyroxene. Herd believes the meteorite that struck Velaidum’s property got here from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The meteorite traveled by way of the chilly depths of house at 1000’s of miles an hour and encountered sizzling temperatures by way of Earth’s ambiance, possible breaking apart through the “tough trip,” Herd says.
A minimum of 48 tons of meteorite-like materials fall to the Earth daily, according to NASA. The probabilities of any of that materials hitting a human are slim, however there have been different shut encounters up to now. Meteorites usually tend to land in water, since it covers 71% of the Earth’s floor, Herd says.
Velaidum says the incident initially made him cautious, and he regarded up at any time when he stepped exterior. However after some reflection, the expertise made him rethink his priorities and what’s most vital in life, he says.
“We expect our lives are so vital once we fill it up with our egos, and there are these cosmic occasions that simply dwarf our little considerations,” he says. “And this can be a tiny little occasion when it comes all the way down to it within the cosmic scheme of issues, nevertheless it’s such an eye-opener.”
