Sight & sound of meteorite striking Earth caught on doorbell camera

A star-shaped pattern of grey dust spotted on a walkway outside a home in one of eastern Canada’s maritime provinces, Prince Edward Island, turned into a history-making find — one that originated in space.

A doorbell camera captured the remarkable moment a meteorite struck the ground outside a home, scattering dust and producing audible impact sounds—a historic first, according to University of Alberta scientist Chris Herd.

In July 2024, Laura Kelly and her partner Joe discovered the rock outside their home on Prince Edward Island, Canada, marking the province’s first recorded meteorite fall.

The meteorite left a small dent in the walkway and the rock was confirmed to be ordinary chondrite, the most common type of space rock to strike Earth.

After becoming curious about the dust in front of their home in July 2024, the homeowners checked their security camera footage and noticed an astonishing sight: the exact moment a rock came out of nowhere and landed on the path, scattering grey dust and fragments across the walk and grass.

Blink and you’ll miss it: the rock can only be seen in one frame of the video, which indicates rapid movement, but the exploding dust and sound of the impact was undeniable. It clearly came from the sky and appeared to be a meteorite. 

The homeowners recovered about 7 grams of the rock from the grass next to the walkway, returning to pick up more samples in the coming days using a vacuum and magnet.

They also connected with Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection and professor in the Faculty of Science, via the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Reporting System.  

Upon examination of photos of the fragments, Herd confirmed the discovery was, in fact, a meteorite. By chance, he had planned a family trip to Prince Edward Island a mere 10 days after the fall; the trip now included a diversion to check the space where the meteorite landed.

With the help of some family members Herd documented the meteorite fragments, measured a 2 x 2 cm divot in the walkway formed by the meteorite’s impact, and recovered a subset of the fragments to become part of the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection.

Herd, a geologist who studies the planets and moons of the Solar System through meteorites, says the event in the summer of 2024 is likely the first and only time the sound of a meteorite hitting the earth has ever been recorded.

Analysis shows that the newly-named Charlottetown Meteorite is an ordinary chondrite with features that help to explain why it broke apart as it hit the ground.

“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 says. “It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the Island.”