On July 25, in Charlottetown, on Prince Edward Island in Canada, a couple captured a rare event: the fall of a meteorite in their garden. Joe Velaidum and Laura Kelly discovered strange, star-shaped gray dust and black debris scattered across their driveway. Intrigued, they viewed their surveillance camera recordings, revealing the meteorite impact.
Quoted by BFMTVJoe Velaidum said: “What was most shocking to me was seeing that I was standing in the same place exactly two minutes before impact. »
Meteorite falls on Earth are common, with about 48 tons of similar material falling each day, according to NASA. However, it is rare to capture such images, especially with the sound of impact. Chris Herd, professor and curator of the meteorite collection at the University of Alberta, points out: “I've heard that other times sounds have been recorded, but not like this: where you see the rock hitting the surface, breaking and then you hear the sound at the same time. »
After analysis, it was determined that the meteorite was a chondrite, the most common type of space rock striking our planet. Measuring the size of “half a fist”, it hit the ground at a speed of around 200 km/h, creating a 2 centimeter cavity. This meteorite comes from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, having traveled a long way before landing on their doorstep.
-This incident recalls a similar event that occurred in France in September 2023, where a resident of Cher discovered a meteorite fragment in her garden. The celestial object, traveling at 50,000 km/h, crashed near a table, and the recording of a surveillance camera made it possible to capture the sound of the impact. According to Sylvain Bouley, professor of planetology at Paris-Saclay University, “It is believed that there are one or two meteorites per year which fall on French territory. Unfortunately, in France, we have a lot of fields and forests and therefore it is very difficult to find them all, most of them are lost. »
These discoveries provide scientists with valuable opportunities to study fragments of the solar system. Brigitte Zanda, teacher-researcher and meteorite expert, explains that each new meteorite can represent “a new window on a moment in the formation of the solar system, a place in the early solar system, it can completely revolutionize our ideas. »
