Cosmic Close Encounter: Meteorite Lands Just Steps from Homeowner’s Doorstep

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island (CTV News) – Approximately two minutes after a Canadian individual departed from his residence for a stroll with his dogs, a meteorite fell onto the pathway he had just occupied.

On an average day last July, an astonishing occurrence took place outside Joe Velaidum’s residence in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island when a meteorite plummeted to the ground. It narrowly avoided colliding with the homeowner, who had just stepped out to take his dogs for a walk, by roughly two minutes.

“I was literally positioned right over the exact location where the meteorite landed just a couple of minutes later,” he informed CTV News.

Upon Velaidum’s return home, he was met with debris scattered on the walkway. Neither he nor his family had a clue as to what had caused the disorder.

“We had no idea what it was, and we were cleaning it up and intended to discard it,” Velaidum remarked.

However, a neighbor heard the impact and speculated if it might have been a meteorite.

Velaidum and his household reviewed their security footage and were taken aback by what they discovered; they forwarded images to Chris Herd, a meteorite specialist at the University of Alberta. Herd was coincidentally visiting Prince Edward Island for a family holiday, enabling him to collect samples of the debris.

Herd verified that a meteorite had indeed crashed outside Velaidum’s abode. It marked the inaugural meteorite recorded to land on Prince Edward Island – remarkably, it was also a first on a global scale.

“It’s the first occasion we’ve documented a meteorite’s descent to Earth accompanied by sound,” Herd expressed.

The unprecedented sound captured is indicative of a space rock approximately the size of a kiwi breaking apart upon impact.

“When I played it for my wife, she mentioned it resembled the sound of ice cracking, as if one were to take a chunk of ice and just shatter it,” Herd stated. “It’s extraordinary because it’s something that’s never been documented before.”

Herd estimated that the meteorite would have approached at a speed of roughly 200 kilometers per hour, or 124 miles per hour, upon colliding with Velaidum’s walkway. He expressed uncertainty over whether Velaidum would have survived had he been hit.

“I have reflected on it extensively because a near-death occurrence can be shocking,” Velaidum noted. “We ought to be reminded that the lives we lead are merely a fraction of this cosmic narrative that is immensely greater than we can fathom.”

Herd mentioned that the meteorite likely dislodged from an asteroid positioned between Mars and Jupiter. While meteors are often observed racing across the sky, only approximately 70 meteorites have been retrieved in Canada.

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