Bright Meteor Seen Over Western Canada

By Nancy Atkinson - November 21, 2008 at 1:04 PM UTC | Planetary Science
meteor-images.jpg

[/caption] A bright fireball lit up the sky over parts of Canada and was probably a meteor which may have hit the ground in central Alberta. Reports from all over western Canada said the bright flashes occurred at 5:30 pm MST on Nov. 20. The bolide split the evening sky and fragmented during a series of booming explosions. The image above is from a video taken by Andy Bartlett, who recorded the event from a 10th-floor apartment in Edmonton, Alberta with his Canon A510. Watch the movie

here.

"The brilliant fireball appeared to be closer than the airplane in the upper right corner of this video," said Bartlett. Another video was taken by a serendipitously placed surveillance camera. See a news report from a Canadian television station here.

So what was this object?

The possibility of the object being part of a Russian rocket has been ruled out, but astronomers say it will take time for experts to work through videos and photos to find out what exactly occurred. Astronomers need views of the event from at least two sites to triangulate where a meteorite might have hit and where any small pieces could possibly be found. However, it may have burned up completely in the atmosphere. One educator said the object was probably no bigger than the size of a grapefruit as it entered Earth's atmosphere, probably traveling about 60 km per second.

Sources:

Space Weather

, MSN news

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com