Meteor Lights Up Canada
Experts say a flaming ball of fire was seen for more than 400 miles Thursday during one of the biggest meteor events to happen in Canada this year.
Scientists say they hope to find remnants of the meteor, which streaked through the darkening skies over Alberta and Saskatchewan at about 5:30 p.m. Calgary time.
They estimate it weighed between one and ten tons and shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles) wide.
"It was somewhere between the size of a chair to the size of a desk," said Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist at the University of Calgary and a coordinator of a fireball reporting service.
He called it one of the largest meteors visible in the country in the last decade.
"This one was pretty spectacular. For this year it will be one of the biggest that happens over Canada…. Something like this radiates like a billion-watt bulb. It’s pretty bright light in the sky."
Witnesses sent Hildebrand about 300 email reports; widely broadcast video images showed what appeared to be a speeding fireball over Saskatoon that became larger and brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground.
Rick Huziak, an amateur astronomer in Saskatoon, helped operate a camera on top of the University of Saskatchewan physics building that captured video of the meteor.
"It was quite spectacular. The ground lights up all over the place," he said.
Tammy Evans said her 10-year-old daughter, who saw the meteor, wakened her.
"She said there was a flash of light, the house shook twice and it sounded like dinosaurs were walking," Evans said.
Martin Beech, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina, said meteorites reveal valuable information about the history of the solar system.
"Picking up a meteorite is almost equivalent to doing a space exploration mission between Mars and Jupiter," he said.
Hildebrand said the meteor probably broke into hundreds of smaller meteorites that could have landed in central Saskatchewan near that province’s border with Alberta.
He said the fireball lit up the skies for about five seconds.
—
On the Net: