Meteorite Caught On Camera In Canada

Witnesses: Large meteor streaks across Canada sky
1 day ago

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (AP) " Scientists say they hope to find remnants of a meteor that brilliantly lit up the sky before falling to earth in western Canada.

University of Calgary planetary scientist Alan Hildebrand called it one of the largest meteors visible in the country in the last decade.

Widely broadcast video images showed what appeared to be a speeding fireball Thursday night over Saskatoon that became larger and brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground.

Hildebrand said Friday that he received about 300 email reports from witnesses.

"It would be something like a billion-watt light bulb," said Hildebrand, who also co-ordinates meteor sightings with the Canadian Space Agency.

Tammy Evans was wakened by her 10-year-old daughter who ran into the bedroom.

"She said there was a flash of light, the house shook twice and it sounded like dinosaurs were walking," Evans said.

Hildebrand suspects it broke up into pieces and he plans to investigate around Macklin, Saskatchewan near the Alberta border.

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.

Martin Beech, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina, said meteorites are valuable to learning 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.
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Fragments of a huge meteorite that lit up the skies across Alberta and Saskatchewan last week have been found near the border city of Lloydminster, University of Calgary scientists say.

U of C planetary scientist Dr. Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley said Friday morning they located several meteorite fragments late Thursday afternoon.

They believe thousands of meteorite bits are strewn over a 20-square-kilometre area near the Battle River.

They're planning to take reporters to the as-yet undisclosed site " about 40 kilometres from Lloydminister " Friday afternoon.

There was fire in the sky in the early evening of November 20, 2008, as a massive meteorite streaked across the Canadian Prairies. The sky lit up as far north as the Territories, and as far East and West as British Columbia and Manitoba respectively.

As we are near the latter part of the year, the days inevitably are getting shorter, so it is already quite dark by 530PM when the meteorite screeched across the sky. As a result, residents of Medicine Hat were amazed to see how it apparently seemed like it was midday time from the flame-engulfed ball of space rock.

It would appear the search for pieces of last week's spectacular exploding meteor has now paid off after University of Calgary meteor expert Alan Hildebrand successfully located fallen fragments sitting atop a frozen pond in Saskatchewan.

According to the Edmonton Journal, masters student Ellen Milley initially spotted small black lumps strewn across the pond's icy surface while the pair were searching for possible impact sites across the province's rural regions " which is where Hildebrand initially said he suspected the meteor had broken up.

Resulting investigations upon the pond, which is situated in Lone Rock, a few kilometres short of the Alberta border, subsequently saw the efforts of Hildebrand and Milley rewarded by the discovery of a 250g chunk of frozen space rock.

The pond is situated on cattle ranch property owned by Ian Mitchell, who had heard search parties believed the meteor had come down somewhere over his land.

According to Mr. Mitchell, he had initially expected to stumble upon fragments at some point in the future but then found a wind shield note on his car from Hildebrand informing him of the discovery late on Thursday.

“We call this Fish Pond, because in the summer we stock it with trout,” said Mr. Mitchell. “But now I think it's going to be Meteorite Pond.”

Hildebrand and Milley's search on the frozen pond and throughout the surrounding area returned around 12 meteor fragments, although none as substantial as the 250g chunk. However, the pair believe that more pieces are yet to be uncovered, and that some may be equal in size to a football.

According to Hildebrand, the November 20 meteor caught on camera hurtling through the atmosphere on its fiery descent over Alberta and Saskatchewan weighed an estimated 10 tonnes prior to exploding into a myriad smaller meteorites.

Preliminary analysis of the meteor chunks has revealed that the falling rock was originally part of a much larger asteroid, which formed around 4.5 billion years ago, according to Hildebrand.

“We call it an ordinary condrite,” he explained before adding that the recovered pieces consist mostly of stone and iron metal, but that further analysis is necessary to learn more about specific age, composition and origin.

With hundreds of amateur meteorite hunters descending on the area around Marsden, Sask., near the Alberta border, some farmers are being kept hopping dealing with the crowds.

It's been particularly hectic around Ian Mitchell's farm, a property southeast of Lloydminster where the first meteorite pieces were discovered by University of Calgary researchers on Nov. 27.
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Last weekend, Mitchell was hoping to go looking for space rocks with his son and grandson, but instead he was stuck dealing with a flood of visitors.

There were hundreds of souvenir hunters and the curious descending on his farm looking for pieces of the meteorite, he said.

"I found two pieces in the small breaks while I was doing the crowd control thing at a Texas gate," he said.

"When there was a break between vehicles, I found a couple of golf-ball-sized pieces. Which was really nice, because I had something to show anybody else that showed up."
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The meteorite hunters haven't restricted their search to Mitchell's land. His sister-in-law Loretta Mitchell has also had a lot of visitors.

"It's been crazy, but thankfully we're on the edge of it so we don't get the brunt of it that my husband's brothers get," she said.

So far, the biggest find has been a 14-kilogram rock, which was picked up on a farm property.