Fireball lights up the sky

Here is the Winnipeg Sun's version of the story, along with the meteorite sighting story from yesterday...

By DEAN PRITCHARD, STAFF REPORTER

A huge meteor exploded over the Manitoba sky early Saturday evening, rattling windows and leaving a fire trail visible from Minnedosa to Arborg. "People that actually saw the fireball described it as a flaming baseball that had an orange trail of flames and smoke behind it that went shooting across the sky and exploded," said Scott Young, astronomer for The Manitoba Museum Planetarium.

Young said the planetarium started receiving a flood of phone calls after the meteor blazed through the atmosphere about 7 p.m.

EXPLODED

Young estimated the meteor was the size of "a large suitcase" before it exploded upon entering the Earth's atmosphere.

"It was big enough that it gave off so much energy it could be seen in broad daylight, which is the rare part of it. The explosion tells us that it was a fairly big object that basically exploded in the upper atmosphere so that any pieces from it could be scattered over a wide area."

Young wants to hear from anyone who saw the meteor fall to Earth. The more reports the planetarium receives, the better the odds of narrowing down where exactly the meteor fragments landed.

"We have to find a way to narrow down the search area because right now we have a 100 kilometres by 50 kilometres to scan and if you are looking for a rock the size of your fist in the middle of April, good luck," he said.

Only seven meteorites have ever been recovered in Manitoba.

My human first became aware of the cyclical nature of asteroid and meteor type catastrophes by reading the Cassiopaean website. The owner, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, has just published a geneology website that traces her family history down through the ages. Very interesting addition to an already voluminous body of work. Check it out!