Could a meteorite hit you? How often they fall to Earth, according to experts
A Canadian homeowner's doorbell camera video of a meteorite crashing down to Earth right outside his front door could be the first time the phenomenon has been recorded, complete with audio of the impact, but it's not the first time something falling from space has hit close to home.
The bit of falling space rock, caught on camera in July, was confirmed to be a meteorite by the University of Alberta, which said that the footage was the first of its kind. The video shows the moment it made impact with the ground with a loud crash and broke into bits.
“The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact,” Joe Velaidum, of Prince Edward Island, 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.”
Could a meteorite really hit a person and injure them? And just how common is a meteorite crashing down to Earth?
How often do meteorites hit Earth?
The frequency of meteorites making it to the Earth's surface depends on their size, according to the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Earth is "showered in almost 100 tons of meteoric dust each day," the laboratory's website said. It's also bombarded by bits the size of a grain of sand or pebble daily. Larger objects are less frequent, but not as rare as you might think.
Objects the size of the smallest asteroids, which are about 3 feet across, strike Earth a few times a year.
In 2013, an asteroid the size of a house entered Earth's atmosphere over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, exploding about 14 miles from the ground. The resulting shockwave shattered people's windows as far as 75 miles away and caused over 1,600 injuries, mostly due to broken glass. The meteorite that hit the ground didn't hit any person or building, but it put the world on high alert to the possibility. Objects that large make it all the way to Earth once every several decades (research has suggested it's somewhere between 30 to 40 years and 60 to 80 years).
About once every 2,000 years, a meteorite the size of a football field impacts Earth and causes huge damage, according to NASA.
Meteor Crater in Arizona is considered the best-preserved meteorite impact site, made by an approximately 150-foot-wide meteorite about 50,000 years ago.
Could a person be hit by a meteorite?
There is only one documented case of a person being hit by a meteorite, and it happened right here in the U.S. There are, however, several records – whether they be rumors or confirmed cases – of meteorites injuring or killing animals.
The person hit was Ann Hodges. Hodges was taking a nap on her sofa in November 1954 in her home near Sylacauga, Alabama, when a grapefruit-sized rock came through the ceiling, bounced off her radio and hit her on her side. It left a nasty bruise and frayed nerves and launched Hodges into celebrity, but she was otherwise unharmed, according to a publication by the University of Alabama.
Bits of defunct space junk, some of the millions of pounds of objects left by humans in space ranging from small nuts and bolts to pieces of defunct satellites, have also been documented hitting people and buildings, but have caused nothing more than a minor injury or damage. One Florida family sued NASA last year for the damage caused when a bit of space junk from a pallet of used batteries that came from the International Space Station came through their roof.
While it is possible that someone could be hit by a bit of rock or junk falling from space, the chances are extraordinarily slim, and the vast majority are tiny pieces that wouldn't have much of an impact because most will burn up in the atmosphere.
FALLING FROM SPACE: When space junk plummets to Earth and causes damage or injury, who pays?
What is a meteor shower? What's a meteorite?
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through dusty debris trails left by comets and other space objects as they orbit the sun. The debris – space rocks known as meteoroids – collides with Earth's atmosphere at high speed and disintegrates, creating fiery and colorful streaks in the sky, according to NASA.
Those resulting fireballs, better known as "shooting stars," are meteors. If meteoroids survive their trip to Earth without burning up in the atmosphere, they are called meteorites, NASA says.
Meteors, and meteorites are often called “shooting stars” – bright lights streaking across the sky. We call the same objects by different names, depending on where they are located.
Contributing: Eric Legatta, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can you get hit by a meteorite? Falling space rock caught on camera