"It probably would've ripped me in half."

Dodged a Bullet

There are close calls, and then there are cosmically close calls.

Just ask this Canadian man who was innocently chilling outside his home's front door, when — moments after moving away to walk the dogs — a meteorite practically with his name on it smashed into that exact same spot.

"The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact," Joe Velaidum, the homeowner, told CBC News. "If I'd have seen it, I probably would've been standing right there, so it probably would've ripped me in half."

Smite Not

It's the kind of astonishing coincidence that should have you thanking your lucky stars, perhaps literally; who knows what astronomical bodies influenced the trajectory of this human-seeking meteorite, perhaps on some star-trekking, long-winded assassination attempt.

Velaidum's good fortune — or seen another way, spooky near miss — is also a boon to scientists: the whole thing was captured by his home security camera. In fact, it may be the first time ever that both the visuals and sound of a meteorite strike have been recorded.

"It's not anything we've ever heard before. From a science perspective, it's new," Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta's meteorite collection, told the CBC. "The meteorite itself we've been able to investigate since then, thanks to the owners."

According to a Meteoritical Society report about the Charlottetown meteorite, the rock was traveling so fast — Herd estimates roughly 125 miles per hour — that it can only be seen in a single frame of the video before practically detonating in a cloud of dust on the ground. 

The sound, too, is striking. Watch it with the volume up and you're in for a major jumpscare.

Visitor From Space

Velaidum only found out about the meteorite strike, which happened last summer, after he got home from his walk and saw a star-shaped, gray debris pattern on his walkway, caking a roughly 1 inch x 1 inch divot with dust. Then he checked his security footage, making the discovery. 

Velaidum prudently documented all his findings and retrieved roughly 95 grams of debris samples, which he sent to U of A scientists, who have since confirmed its off world origins.

Serendipitous as its choice of landing spot may be, the meteorite turned out to be of decidedly ordinary make: chondrite, the most common type of rock to fall to Earth. But its origins, nonetheless, are spectacular.

"It's from the asteroid belt... between Mars and Jupiter, so it's come a long way," Herd told the CBC. As the crow flies, the rock and ice chunk littered region of space is about 1.2 to 2.2 astronomical units away from Earth on average, with each unit equaling the distance between our planet and the Sun. A long way indeed.

More on meteorites: Irish TV Crew Films Segment on "Mysterious Crater" That Turns Out to Be Hole Dug by Local "Lads"


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