A few months ago, a couple in Canada were walking home from walking their dog when they noticed dusty debris strewn on the sidewalk. They turned to security camera footage for answers, which showed a mysterious plume of smoke billowing across a tidy sidewalk with mysterious spots.
The source of the speck was officially registered as the Charlottetown meteorite on Monday. The meteorite is named after the city on Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada where it fell.
The Meteorite Society, an organization that records all known meteorites, said only 69 meteorites have been discovered and registered in the country, and this is the first recorded on Prince Edward Island. Chris Hurd, a professor and meteorite collection curator at the University of Alberta, said the Charlottetown meteorite is all the more significant because of the surveillance camera footage.
“As far as I know, this is the first time that a meteorite impacting the Earth's surface has been recorded on video with sound,” said Dr Hurd, who identified the space rock after the couple sent the video to American University. spoke. Alberta's meteorite reporting system.
Dr Hurd said about 99.9 per cent of the rocks people submitted to the reporting system turned out not to be meteorites. When I saw the video from July 25, 2024, which showed a small explosion accompanied by the sound of crackling ice and glass, I thought what was recorded was important. .
For homeowner Joe Veraidum, the video not only captured something of value to science, but also recorded a good fortune. Just before the meteor struck, Veraidam and his partner Laura Kelly had left home to walk their dog, the Canadian Press reported.
“Just a few minutes later, I was literally standing over the exact spot where the meteorite had hit,” Veraidum said. “I think about it a lot, because when you have a near-death experience, it kind of shocks you.”
In further fortuitous timing, the meteorite struck about 10 days before Dr. Heard was scheduled to go on a family trip to Prince Edward Island. Dr. Hurd made a detour with his wife, eldest son, and son's girlfriend to meet Mr. Veraidum and Mr. Kelly and assess the debris they had collected.
Dr. Heard, with the help of her son, took measurements using a kitchen scale and a teaspoon.
Although it's rare to find a meteorite and capture it falling to Earth, Dr Hurd said: “It's obviously a lot easier if it literally lands on your doorstep.”
