A hunk of space rock came calling in Canada earlier this month.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
A Canadian woman saw her home invaded by a destructive intruder from outer space and survived to tell the tale. There are no malicious aliens in this story, just one meteorite that, after a long journey, came to rest on Ruth Hamilton’s bed in British Columbia.
Hamilton told the CBC she was asleep the evening of Oct. 3 when she was awakened by her dog barking.
“The next thing was just a huge explosion and debris all over my face,” Hamilton recalled. “I rolled back one of the two pillows I’d been sleeping on and in between them was the meteorite.”
A fireball was caught on camera over Canada that matches the time of the meteorite that put a hole in Hamilton’s roof in the town of Golden.
Researchers across Canada are now asking residents in the region to check their own dashboard or security cams for additional footage, as well as checking outside (and perhaps under beds) for other meteorites from the event.
“We strongly expect that dozens of more meteorites will have fallen, and encourage residents to be on the lookout,” said Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist at the University of Calgary, in a statement.
The space rock that hit Hamilton’s bed was charcoal gray and about the size of a melon, weighing around 3 pounds (1.3 kilograms).
A second, smaller meteorite has already been found near the town, according to CTV News.
While meteors almost surely reach the surface of the planet on a near daily basis, such a close call is exceedingly rare. The case of an Alabama woman being bruised by a meteorite that smacked her on the hip as she slept in bed in 1954 is among the few.
For her part, Hamilton says she was rattled by the incident, but is unharmed and looking to get the hole in her roof repaired. She also says she plans to keep the meteorite.