WASHINGTON — A Canadian woman survived an extremely close call when a meteorite came crashing through her ceiling and landed on her bed.
Ruth Hamilton told The Canadian Press she had been asleep for hours on the night of Oct. 3, when she woke up to the sound of her dog barking. Moments later, the Golden, British Columbia, resident said she heard what sounded like an explosion and felt debris all over her face.
Hamilton said she jumped out of bed and turned the lights on, only to discover a hole in her bedroom ceiling. The 66-year-old told CBC News she quickly called 911 and while talking with an operator she pulled back one of the pillows she had been sleeping on and spotted a charcoal colored chunk of rock.
It had landed just inches from where her head had been.
"I think I'm just in wonder. Every time I go into the bedroom, I go 'oh my goodness, that could have hit me,'" Hamilton described to The Canadian Press.
A police officer was sent to investigate and they initially thought the rock could've been debris from a nearby construction site, but workers there confirmed they hadn't been doing any blasting but did recount seeing an explosion in the sky.
That's when Hamilton and the officer knew it was a meteorite.
According to CBC News, Hamilton reported the finding to experts at Western University, who confirmed what crashed into her bedroom was "certainly a meteorite."
The New York Times reported it weighed in at 2.8 pounds.
"It went through tin, asphalt, shingles, plywood and then the drywall," Hamilton said to The Canadian Press, "I'm just thankful to be alive."
The odds of a meteorite being big enough to crash through a roof and hit a bed are about one in 100 billion per year, Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair at Ontario's Western University told The Golden Star.
Brown, along with meteorite experts at the University of Calgary, estimate the trajectory of the meteor that evening would have been visible throughout southeastern British Columbia and central and southern Alberta.
