The search is on for the fireball that streaked across Albertan skies Jan. 17, visible from Athabasca and around the province’s north.
Reports of a meteor came in around 5:30 p.m. Jan. 17 on social media networks from people in Athabasca, as well as Edmonton, Fort McMurray and other parts of Alberta.
Bruce McCurdy is a social media co-ordinator with the Edmonton chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He said there have been hundreds of reports about the meteor sighting.
“One member (of our society) said its brightness was easily that of the full moon,” McCurdy said.
University of Calgary planetary scientist Alan Hildebrand said based on reports, it does indeed appear to have been a meteor as opposed to something like a space booster.
The remoteness of where this particular meteorite might have landed will be challenging to those who hunt for the debris, he said.
“That would take some effort. I would say in the forest, it’s tough to recover meteorites,” Hildebrand said.
Astronomy enthusiasts will still try to hunt down where the meteorite landed, McCurdy said. But triangulating its position will be challenging, he added.
“It happened farther to the northeast. It seems most observations were in that direction. Might be a little harder to narrow down,” McCurdy said, adding he is still confident somebody will find it. “I wouldn’t bet against those guys for a minute.”
The sighting only lasted for seconds, Hildebrand said, noting the short time frame is due to the speed at which meteors travel.
“Suppose it was going 20 kilometres per second. Say it becomes visible 90 kilometres up. They’re pretty much done five, twenty or thirty kilometres above the ground,” Hildebrand said.
McCurdy said it has been nearly 10 years since he has seen this level of buzz around a meteor in Alberta. That occurred when a meteor fell in 2008 and was reported throughout the province as well as in Saskatchewan.
“Just to see them in the sky – a real fireball. You can basically see our planet interact with an interloper in space. It’s kind of exciting,” McCurdy said.
