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Meteor confirmed

While it was brief, a bright light, and what some reported to be a loud boom, was the talk of social media on the evening of Feb. 12, as a meteor was spotted shooting through the skies of northeastern Alberta.
A fireball makes its way across the night sky on Feb. 12. Surveillance video in Mallaig captured the unique event.
A fireball makes its way across the night sky on Feb. 12. Surveillance video in Mallaig captured the unique event.

While it was brief, a bright light, and what some reported to be a loud boom, was the talk of social media on the evening of Feb. 12, as a meteor was spotted shooting through the skies of northeastern Alberta.

Frank Florian, director of Planetarium and Space Sciences at the TELUS World of Science Edmonton, confirmed that what residents saw was in fact a meteor, also known as a fireball or a bolide, at about 9:45 p.m.

“It was seen from the Edmonton area, as well through some cloud cover to the east-northeast of Edmonton,” said Florian. “So, the St. Paul area would have been closer to the entry position of the bolide from the sightlines reported here in the Edmonton area.”

Florian added that a few amateur astronomers leaving the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) meeting at the TELUS World of Science Edmonton that night saw the bolide, and made a report of it on the astronomy list server.

Immediately after the sky lit up around St. Paul, residents noted a loud boom could be heard, with some people saying it shook their homes. When asked about the noise, Florian offered an explanation.

“Having the loud boom in your area would indicate that the bolide was in close proximity to St. Paul, or at least passed over and near St. Paul.”

Furthermore, some eyewitness reports indicate that the meteor did fragment on its flight through the atmosphere, indicating that pieces of it may be found somewhere in Alberta, said Florian.

The University of Alberta and Athabasca University operate an all-sky camera system, which did record the event, but due to cloud cover, the photos weren’t very clear, according to Chris Herd, Professor and Curator at the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection.

“The DFNEXT camera at Athabasca did pick it up, but the cloud cover means that we don’t have a very good view,” said Herd.

Shortly after the meteor was noted, Tarah Feland decided to look through some of the footage on the security camera she has installed at the Mallaig general store, located on main street in the hamlet.

Although she didn’t see the meteor herself, she figured the east-facing camera may have caught something – and it did.

Feland posted the video to her Facebook account, showing the meteor rather clearly. As of Thursday of last week, the video had been shared over 600 times, and viewed over 35,000 times, according to Facebook.

After viewing the video, Herd pointed out that “the variations in brightness of the fireball (the flashes) tell us that the object was a decent size, maybe on the scale of a meter or so.”

The flashes of light come from the fact that the object broke up as it came through the atmosphere, he added. Herd also offered a noted about terminology, as it relates to these types objects.

A meteor is the trail or flash of light in the sky from the entry of a natural object. A fireball is a bright meteor, which is caused by a larger rock.

Meteoroid is the rock as it comes through the atmosphere; and a meteorite is the rock (if any) that actually makes it to the ground.


Janice Huser

About the Author: Janice Huser

Janice Huser has been with the St. Paul Journal since 2006. She is a graduate of the SAIT print media journalism program, is originally from St. Paul and has a passion for photography.
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