The night sky was briefly lit around Edmonton Saturday evening by what some observers believe was a streaking meteor.
What appeared to be a bright orange ball flew across the sky at 10:23 p.m.
READ MORE: Scientists hunting for meteorites after fireball reported in northern Alberta
Some residents reported hearing a loud “bang,” while others posted video of the bright object on social media.
Frank Florian, Telus World of Science Planetarium and Space Sciences senior manager, said the object was a fireball or a bright meteor that broke off from a rock in space.
![Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/themes/shaw-globalnews/images/skyline/national.jpg)
Get daily National news
“When that rock from space passes through the earth’s atmosphere very, very quickly, the atmosphere sometimes can’t move out of the way fast enough and that rock will basically disintegrate and break into smaller fragments,” Florian said.
“Eventually, those rocks will make their way down to the surface of the earth and that’s when you can maybe walk over and pick up a little black rock called a meteorite.”
https://twitter.com/Ninjarale/status/1168036318414168068
READ MORE: Flash from meteor flying over Okanagan Lake caught on dash cam
Florian said it is uncertain if the rock left fragments on the earth so researchers are searching for eyewitness accounts.
“It was actually moving from north to south in the eastern sky from the Edmonton region, which tells us if there are fragments somewhere out there, it could be in southeastern Alberta,” he said.
Florian said researchers are investigating the size of the object.
READ MORE: Dash-cam video shot in Edmonton area captures strange bright light falling from sky
There have been other such incidents in Alberta in recent years, but Florian said they are extremely difficult to predict.
“Most of these things just happen whenever they are in the earth’s vicinity and actually hit the earth’s atmosphere, so we can’t really predict many of these at all really,” he said.
Comments