B.C. woman who awoke to meteorite in her bed feels like she won the lottery
Ruth Hamilton will never forget the night of Sunday, Oct. 3.
She was sound asleep in her home in the community of Golden, B.C., when she heard her dog bark.
“And all of a sudden there was an explosion,” Hamilton told CTV News Vancouver.
She jumped up and hit the light switch and quickly spotted a fist-size hole in her ceiling.
“I was just shaking,” she recalled.
It wasn’t until she called 911 and flipped one of her pillows over that she saw it: a chunk of black rock, smooth, yet angular, lying inches from where her head had been.
“I didn’t feel it,” Hamilton said. “It never touched me. I had debris on my face from the drywall, but not a single scratch.”
After police arrived, the officer talked to a construction crew nearby. The workers reported seeing a "bright ball in the sky,” said BC RCMP Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet.
“And the police officer came back in and said: ‘Well, I think you have meteorite in your bed,’" Hamilton recalled.
When Phil McCausland, a geophysicist at the University of Western Ontario, saw photos of the space rock in Hamilton’s bed a few days later, he said he was stunned.
“This email came in and I said holy (expletive)! It was kind of amazing,” he said.
A team from the University of Calgary, working with Western University, headed to Golden to meet Hamilton and look for other fragments.
On Sunday, they found a second meteorite weighing about half a kilo northeast of town.
Researchers are now appealing for anyone with video or photos from the evening of Sunday, Oct. 3, around 11:33 p.m. local time, to contact them by email at wmpg@groups.uwo.ca.
“We’re trying to reconstruct what the path was through the sky as it arrived,” McCausland said.
“Because it’s scientifically even more valuable if we can reconstruct what the orbit was before it hit the Earth. It gives us an idea of where it came from.”
Chris Herd, a geologist with the University of Alberta, which has a broad collection of former chunks of asteroids that have fallen to earth, explained excitement over the “fall.”
“It’s like sending a mission, a multi billion dollar mission to an asteroid to bring a sample back, but it comes to us,” Herd said.
Hamilton told CTV News the meteorite left her hands over the weekend for the team at Western to image, weigh, measure, and to potentially take a sample, and she expects to have “Golden” as it’s been dubbed, home by Nov. 30.
“If it lands on your property it’s yours,” Hamilton said.
Experts say hundreds of meteorites reach the Earth’s surface every year, but few land in places where they can be easily recovered.
“The number one misconception is that they’re hot when they land,” Herd said, adding that they begin cooling some 15 to 20 kilometres up in the atmosphere. “Mrs. Hamilton’s bed didn’t catch fire.”
But that doesn’t make them any less dangerous, he added.
And the chances of a meteorite hitting your home, let alone landing bed with you, according to Hamilton’s spot research?
About one in 4 trillion.
When asked if she plans to buy a lottery ticket, she laughed, then replied:
“I won the lottery. I won it, I’m alive. I’m laughing about it. I feel pretty blessed.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
4th Indian national arrested, charged with murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Homicide investigators in B.C. say murder charges have been laid against a fourth Indian national in connection to the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Surrey gurdwara last year.
Man arrested after allegedly trespassing again at Drake's Bridle Path mansion
A man who tried to access Drake’s Bridle Path mansion earlier this week returned to the property Saturday and was apprehended again for allegedly trespassing, Toronto police say.
Switzerland's Nemo wins 68th Eurovision Song Contest
Swiss singer Nemo won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with 'The Code,' an operatic ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing their nongender identity.
Wildfire that forced evacuation of Fort Nelson, B.C., caused by tree falling on wires, mayor says
The wildfire that prompted the evacuation of more than 3,000 people near Fort Nelson, B.C., was caused by a tree falling on wires, according to the municipality's mayor.
Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
'I am angry': Alberta farmers will continue fight over world class motorsport resort
The rolling hills leading to the hamlet of Rosebud are dotted with sprawling farms and cattle pastures -- and a sign sporting a simple message: No Race Track.
IN PICTURES Northern lights dance across the night sky in southern Ont.
From London, to Grand Bend, Collingwood and Guelph, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with Maple Leafs, dead at 79
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a member of Canada's team at the 1972 Summit Series, has died at age 79.
opinion How to use your credit card as a powerful wealth-building tool
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.