- Meteorites – small space rocks – hitting the ground are common. But no one has ever captured the sound of an impact before.
- A home security camera caught video and audio of a meteorite impact for the first time in July 2024.
- The meteorite hit close to a residential house on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Subsequent analysis at the University of Alberta confirmed the small rock really was a meteorite.
Hear a meteorite for the first time
Meteorites – small fragments of space rocks – hit Earth on a regular basis. But a meteorite that landed on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in July 2024 might be a unique first. Both the video and audio of the impact were caught on camera, the University of Alberta said on January 13, 2025. According to a scientist at the university, this is the first known recording of both the audio and video of a meteorite impact.
See and hear a meteorite hit the ground
Last July, homeowner Joe Velaidum noticed a star-shaped pattern of gray dust on a walkway outside his house in Charlottetown, PEI. Not knowing where it came from, he checked his security camera footage. Incredibly, the camera caught the exact moment a small meteorite hit the ground. It was so fast it only showed up in one frame of the video. It hit the walkway, scattering dust and other tiny fragments.
Velaidum told CBC News that he probably narrowly avoided being hit himself:
The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact. If I’d have seen it, I probably would’ve been standing right there, so it probably would’ve ripped me in half.
But the security camera not only caught the video of the meteorite, it also recorded the sound of the impact. Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection, said that as far as he knew, this was the first time the audio of a meteorite strike had been recorded as it happened. He said:
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. It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the Island. … It’s not anything we’ve ever heard before. From a science perspective, it’s new.
Meteorite confirmed
But was it really a meteorite, or could there be another explanation? No, it was indeed a meteorite. Velaidum collected about 7 grams (1/4 ounce) of samples of the tiny fragments using a vacuum and magnet. Herd happened to be on Prince Edward Island on vacation only 10 days after the event, so he also visited the site and collected additional samples.
Herd and his colleagues later examined the samples, about 95 grams (3 1/3 ounces) altogether, at the University of Alberta, and confirmed they were from a stony chondrite meteorite.
An awesome event
Herd described the event as “awesome,” saying:
It’s really awesome. It’s actually the first and only meteorite ever found on the Island, and what a way to make that discovery. Every time that this happens, it’s a new sample from space. It’s from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, so it’s come a long way.
To be sure, the odds of Velaidum – or anyone else – almost being hit by a meteorite are practically, well, astronomical. He surmised:
How does one interpret that, except … with wonder and with awe?
Bottom line: A home security camera has recorded both the video and sound of a meteorite hitting the ground for the first time. The meteorite fell on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
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