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EDMONTON - It wasn't a bird and it wasn't a plane, but whatever it was in the skies over the city last night was far more exciting than either of those.

People across western Canada reported seeing a bright flaming object light up the sky around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. It was variously described as green, yellow, purple and blue and appeared as either an explosion or an object streaking through the sky. Sightings came from across the prairies; from as far south as Medicine Hat and as far north as Beauval, Sask., 600 kilometres from Edmonton.

Edmonton International Airport spokesman Jim Rudolph said "the skies east of the airport lit up" at 5:27 p.m.
"According to NavCanada, it appears that this was the result of a meteorite, but that has not been confirmed," said Rudolph, adding that operations at the airport were not affected.

"What we probably saw was a fireball, which is the result of a rock coming into the atmosphere," said Chris Herd, an associate professor in the University of Alberta's department of earth and atmospheric sciences and curator of the university's meterorite collection.

"The big question now is whether or not anything hit the ground."

Though many of the witnesses who contacted the Journal claimed to see something land, Herd said that was likely an optical illusion. Since the fireball was a bright light several kilometers up in a sky, it would have appeared close to anyone who saw it. If something did hit the ground, it's extremely unlikely anyone would have seen it. As the object fell through Earth's atmosphere, it would slow down, and the resulting decrease in friction would cause it to stop burning, Herd said.

"What we know about fireballs is that they're bright burning up for a certain amount of time in the atmosphere but then they stop burning brightly. If there's a rock that continues after that, it's falling in dark flight," he said.

"This could literally be a couple of kilometers up in the air and it could fall the whole rest of the way without giving off any

light. It could drop like a rock to the ground."

Herd said while fireballs are quite frequent, they don't generally happen over populated areas.

"Something as bright as this is pretty rare," he said.

If something did ultimately hit the ground, Herd said, it would be a very exciting find.

"It's not often that something actually lands and is found because of all the factors that are working against you," he said, adding he hopes anyone who finds a new rock in their yard tomorrow would get in touch with him.

For those who witnessed the fireball, Herd suggested that they report it to the Meteorites and Impacts Advisory Committee to the Canadian Space Agency, which can be found at Miac.uqac.ca.

Ingram

Friday Nov 21 2008, 09:03 PM

" It could drop like a rock to the ground."