Sound of Meteorite Hitting Earth Recorded by Security Camera Moments After Couple Left Home to Walk Their Dogs

According to expert Chris Herd, it's an "ordinary chondrite," the most common kind of meteorite

Have you ever wondered what a meteorite hitting Earth sounds like?

Last July, Joe Velaidum and Laura Kelly, residents of Prince Edward Island in Canada, returned home from walking their dogs to find a pile of debris outside their home, according to The National Post and the Canadian Press.

“We had no idea what it was," Velaidum told The National Post.

When they checked their doorbell camera, a video showed a cloud of dust arising from the impact of what appeared to be a medium-sized rock, accompanied by the sound of it breaking.

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The footage also showed that just minutes earlier, Velaidum was standing exactly where the meteorite landed.

"I never stop in that spot," Velaidum told The National Post. "And in retrospect, if I had stayed in that spot for just two minutes longer, I would have been hit by that meteorite."

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Kelly's dad, who lived close by, felt certain that the object was a meteorite before everyone else. After the family saw the video, Kelly's father got a powerful magnet and collected bits of the rock for an expert to examine.

Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta's meteorite collection, later confirmed that it was in fact, a meteorite. Specifically, he said, it's an "ordinary chondrite," the most common kind of meteorite.

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Still, Herd told the Canadian Press that "it’s remarkable because it’s never really been heard before," commenting that it's believed this marked "the first time we’ve ever had a recorded fall of a meteorite hitting the surface of the Earth with sound included."

Related: Rare 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Crashes Into New Jersey Home: 'It Penetrated The Roof'

As for the space rock itself, Herd told the National Post that "it comes from the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter."

“So a fragment of an asteroid broke off at some point — it could have been millions of years ago — made its way around the sun and then crossed the Earth’s orbit, late afternoon Atlantic time, last July 25th," he continued.

Herd added that when the meteorite, which likely weighed around one kilogram, first entered the atmosphere, it was traveling about 50 times the speed of sound, or 60,000 kilometers per hour. But by the time it reached Velaidum's driveway, its speed had decreased to roughly 200 kilometers per hour and about 90% of its material would have burned away.

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As for Velaidum, he told the Canadian Press that what happened as a reminder that "the lives that we lead are just a small part of this celestial drama that’s so much bigger than we could possibly imagine.”

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