Meteorite Impact Caught On Ring Camera, Shattering Sound And All

This is a science story of sheer luck. A meteorite made “auditory history” in July 2024 when a Ring doorbell camera captured footage of the space rock impacting just outside a door. Meteorite experts at the University of Alberta in Canada studied the video and the debris and said it is “likely the first and only time the sound of a meteorite hitting the Earth has been recorded.”

The crash landing occurred in Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island in Canada. The Ring camera shows a breezy, overcast day. There’s a sudden sound like shattering glass and a puff of gray material to the right side of the frame. That’s the meteorite hitting the ground, leaving a small divot in the walkway.

Homeowner Laura Kelly and her partner noticed the fragments and pulled up the footage of the impact. Kelly’s father, who lived nearby, encouraged her to report the rock to the U of A’s Meteorite Reporting System. The system walks users through a series of questions to help identify whether or not a rock is a meteorite. Signs of a meteorite may include a rock heavy for its size that attracts a magnet and that has gray metal specks and a thin black crust on its surface. If a rock passes scrutiny, the public is encouraged to file a report.

What is a meteorite?

Meteorites are rocks that make it through Earth’s atmosphere and reach the ground. “Meteorites typically range between the size of a pebble and a fist,” NASA said in an explainer. They start off as meteoroids—space rocks that can be as tiny as a speck or as big as an asteroid. When they hit our planet’s atmosphere and burn up, they’re known as meteors. These are the fun light shows we see during meteor showers when stargazing.

U of A Meteorite Collection curator Chris Herd confirmed the space rock. Kelly and her partner used a vacuum and magnet to gather up the fragments. Herd went to visit the site in person and recovered some of the fragments for inclusion in the collection. The Meteorite Collection is the largest of its kind in Canada with over 1,800 specimens from around the world. Herd said the reporting system gets about 10 inquiries per week, but most of the submitted rocks are not meteorites.

A rare meteorite

The meteorite caught on camera is a special case. “As the first and only meteorite from the province of PEI, the Charlottetown Meteorite sure announced its arrival in a spectacular way,” said Herd. “No other meteorite fall has been documented like this, complete with sound.” Herd suspects the meteorite was originally the size of a kiwi fruit before it broke up on impact. The meteorite is classified as an ordinary chondrite, a common type of meteorite.

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The Meteoritical Society, an international planetary science organization with a focus on meteorites, has a listing for the meteorite in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database, a catalog of known meteorites. The rock was approved for inclusion on Jan. 13. The rock’s official name is “Charlottetown” and it’s listed as the only approved meteorite in the database from PEI.

Skywatchers are familiar with what meteors look like at night. They often appear as bright streaks, giving them the nickname of “shooting stars.” What’s rare is to hear a meteorite at the moment of impact. The shattering sound in Charlottetown came from a combination of the space rock’s high speed, its composition and the hard material of the house’s walkway. It’s a rare treat.

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