It only lasted a few seconds, but it lit up social media Wednesday morning.
A meteor, streaking across the sky around 6:30 a.m., sent many Albertans scrambling to see if it was caught on their dashcams and home security cameras.
Gary Boyle, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, tells Global News the Earth is hit by tonnes of meteors every day but most are “just fine grains of sand, brought in by Earth’s gravity, and (they) vaporize.”
Boyle, who is also known as “The Backyard Astronomer,” said the flash that lit up the sky Wednesday morning “looks like it was a large piece that hit the atmosphere and broke apart in little pieces.”
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” Boyle said. “The small ones are mostly vaporized (when) we see a streak in the sky.”
However, in order to survive its entry into Earth’s atmosphere, Boyle says meteors need to be much bigger.
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“Maybe a basketball, maybe a small table, and most of it snapped off and melted and the very centre of it survived and hit the ground in many shards.”
Gary Boyle, ‘The Backyard Astronomer,’ holds a sample of a meteorite that was big enough to survive its plunge through the Earth’s atmosphere.
Global News
Most people who reported seeing the meteor say it appeared green in colour and they were looking south at the time it streaked across the sky.
Boyle said colour can be an indication of its size.
“Colour is the molecules being ionized,” Boyle said. “Just like we get green auroras and red auroras, thatâ€s the oxygen molecule and then nitrogen is the blue and the purple – so when you see some green ones you know it’s going to be a big one.”
Boyle says when they’re in the sky, the objects are called meteors, but if any pieces survive entering Earth’s atmosphere and are later found, they are called meteorites.
As for where the pieces may have landed, Boyle said the videos from dashcams and home security cameras may hold the key.
“I would advise any viewers that have this dashcam footage reach out to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in Calgary,” Boyle said.
“If we can triangulate, having three people say ‘I saw it here,’ ‘I saw it here,’ and ‘I saw it here,’ that will give a search area where they might be able to find (evidence).”
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