SASKATOON – A fireball lit up the night sky Sunday night in Saskatoon and over much of central and southern Saskatchewan, startling many across the province and leaving people wondering what was going on.
Watch below: The meteor in Saskatchewan on Nov. 8 was caught by Russ Friesen on his dash cam while he was driving east of Warman (no audio)
The fireball’s journey started 10,000 to 20,000 years ago when a comet broke up into small pieces.
Those pieces now orbit the sun and every year in early November our planet crosses that debris field. Some of those tiny pieces of rock enter into our atmosphere, travelling at speeds of up to 72,000 km/h.
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At such high speeds, most of the tiny rocks quickly burn up, but the one on Sunday night over Saskatchewan did a bit more than that.
“People have reported windows shaking, perhaps a sonic boom, but certainly a very loud bang was associated with this object,” said Stan Shadick, professor and astronomer at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S).
“That means it at least partially broke up at that particular time because of the sound wave.”
Saskatoon resident Trevor Thoms witnessed the fireball Sunday night between 8 and 9 p.m. while out for a walk at River Landing with his wife Nicole.
“It had this green glow coming off the back of it and then it turned orange and we had five seconds to know what to do so I pulled my camera out and took three shots and out of those three we got one.”
It was also a lucky catch for Bill Allen, a photographer from Ralph in the southeast corner of the province.
“I had the camera set on the tripod and set it on the ground and pointed it at the big dipper and then hit the cable release and then two seconds later, boom.”
“It’s a common reaction people make when they see these bright fireballs and it’s so bright they’re convinced it’s in a field but in reality it could be several hundred miles away,” said Shadick.
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Because fireballs are so difficult to locate, the U of S is asking for any photos or video to be sent in to pmccausl@uwo.ca to help them find the path of the fireball and search for any potential debris, if the meteor did make it to the ground.
The Taurids meteor shower typically produces a couple meteors every hour, which is much less frequent than the Perseid meteor shower that produces up to a meteor every few minutes.
Shadick says the shooting star frequency is expected to peak again midweek, so there is still a chance of catching a few more fireballs in the days ahead if skies are clear.
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