Landing meteorite crash captured on doorbell camera ringing outside home in Canada

Canadian homeowners returned home in July 2024 and found a star-shaped gray dust pattern visible on the walkway in front of their Prince Edward Island home.

Curious about the dust, the homeowners checked the video from their security camera and saw an amazing moment – a rock that appeared to be a meteorite falling from space and crashed into their driveway, University of Alberta scientists released their findings. from an accident earlier this week.

Footage from the Attractive doorbell camera shows a brilliant setup that was captured by the security camera for about five seconds when something suddenly appeared on the frame and crashed into what appeared to be the driveway on the side of the stone door.

The crash sounds like breaking glass or a falling pot as a meteorite hits the sidewalk. University of Alberta science professor Chris Herd said this is the first time that the sound and image of a meteor fall has been recorded on video.

“No other meteorite fall has been documented like this, so full of noise,” Herd said in a statement. “It adds a new dimension to the natural history of the Island.”

Herd – who is also the curator of the meteorite collection at the university – arrived at the scene ten days after the meteorite accident to document the origin of the fragments found by the homeowners. They picked up 7 grams of rock from the grass next to the walkway and extracted additional samples using a vacuum and a magnet. Herd also measured a 2 x 2 cm divot in the walkway created by the impact.

He found that the pieces were indeed meteorites and said they were a typical chondrite with characteristics that help explain why it broke up when it hit the ground.

Meteors can crash into Earth, but it's usually a rare occurrence. In May 2023, one homeowner reported that a meteorite crashed through his roof in New Jersey.

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute, told CBS Philadelphia at the time, “For it to hit a house, for people to be able to pick it up, that's unusual and it's happened a few times in history.”

Kerry Breen contributed to this report.