The night sky near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan lit up in a brilliant display of light Thursday night. The cause? A large piece of space rock struck western Canada. Scientists and novices alike scurried to the site in hopes of finding remnants of the meteor. The fireball was visible over miles of the countryside making many think it was caused by a crashing airliner.
Some astronomers say it is one of the largest meteor strikes in that part of the country in nearly 10 years of observation.
“It would be something like a billion-watt light bulb,” said Alan Hildebrand, planetary scientists and meteor coordinator for both the University of Calgary and the Canadian Space Agency.
It is likely that the meteor broke up into much smaller pieces on entry into the Earth’s atmosphere or the damage could have been extensive had it collided in one piece.
Several cameras caught the impact including a police car camera (as shown here) and several amateur astronomers in the area.
If scientists can find remnants of the meteor the find could prove invaluable because getting samples into a lab to analyze this soon after impact is rare.
They had a Meteor Coordinator? Wow, I’ve got to get one of those! Think how much better life would be with a Meteor Coordinator, especially if you’re the head of a major government. “Nope, wasn’t us. You’re super-secret base was struck by a Meteor… Yes, really.”
. . . a small reminder we orbit in a shooting gallery.
Still, it would be neat to see first hand (not too close, of course), and maybe get a souvenir . . . and maybe some kind of superpower.
The meteor remains looked surprisingly like a bag of tools… Hummmm…???
Can they not use an infared (or heat sensing) helecopter to scan the countryside? That will likely be the main heat source should they find it. Have they ever found any organic matter on these space rocks?
This could be the beginnings of an Invasion!
Anyone remember SPECIES (the first one before the terrible sequels)!
It’s the apocalypse! I wonder if that whole zombie thing will happen now.Like on that slither movie.