'Shocking thing:' Watch first-of-its-kind video of meteorite crashing outside a home
- A Canadian man narrowly avoided being struck by a meteorite that crashed onto his front porch in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.
- The meteorite, dubbed the Charlottetown Meteorite, was captured by the homeowner's doorbell camera.
- Researchers confirmed the object was a meteorite and noted its rarity, saying 'no other meteorite fall has been documented like this.'
New details are emerging about one meteorite's journey from space to Earth that was captured on video last year.
Canadian homeowner Joe Velaidum and his dogs narrowly avoided being struck by the space rock, which hit his front porch at about 125 mph and was pulverized on impact. Velaidum's home is based in Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island off the eastern coast of Canada.
"The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact,” Velaidum said in an interview with Canadian news broadcaster CBC News. "If I’d have seen it, I probably would’ve been standing right there, so it probably would’ve ripped me in half.”
Velaidum's doorbell camera captured the astonishing sequence of events, including the splat sound the meteorite made when it hit the walkway.
Video shows fast-moving meteorite shatter on impact
Researchers study remains of meteorite
Velaidum, who was curious about the origins of the dark gray powder near his walkway, collected some samples of the remnants and submitted them to a researcher at the University of Alberta.
Chris Herd, science professor and curator of the university's meteorite collection, confirmed that the powder had, in fact, come from a meteorite. Herd travelled to Prince Edward Island to check out the meteorite remnants for himself and collected some of the fragments to become part of the meteorite collection.
“As the first and only meteorite from the province of PEI, the Charlottetown Meteorite sure announced its arrival in a spectacular way. No other meteorite fall has been documented like this, complete with sound,” Herd said in a statement. “It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the Island.”
The space rock, dubbed the Charlottetown Meteorite, is an "ordinary" chondrite, a stony meteorite containing small mineral granules, with features that help explain why it broke apart as it hit the ground, according to the University of Alberta.
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Could someone be hit by a meteorite?
There has been only one reported case of a person being hit by a meteorite in the U.S., but there are several records – whether they be rumors or confirmed cases – of meteorites injuring or killing animals.
Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her sofa in November 1954 in her home near Sylacauga, Alabama, when a grapefruit-sized rock came through the ceiling, bounced off her radio and hit her on her side. It left a nasty bruise and frayed nerves but she was otherwise unharmed, according to a publication by the University of Alabama.
Bits of defunct space junk and some of the millions of pounds of objects left by humans in space have yet to cause anything more than a minor injury or damage.
One Florida family sued NASA last year after space junk from a pallet of used batteries from the International Space Station flew through the roof, causing damage to their home.
The odds that someone could be hit by a bit of rock or junk falling from space are slim since the vast majority are tiny pieces that will most likely burn up in the atmosphere before they could cause serious damage.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and David Strege, Paste BN