According to Scott Young of the Manitoba Planetarium, what people spotted all over Winnipeg was likely a shoot — also known as a fireball — a very, very bright meteorite. And despite being a relatively common object in the night sky, it’s not that common for a person to see one in action. “It’s one of those maybe once-in-a-lifetime or twice-in-a-lifetime things, so if you saw it, good for you,” Young told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
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“One of these happens somewhere in the world probably every day, but of course, most of the world doesn’t have people on it, so the chances of a person seeing it are very low… but it actually rains from space pretty regularly.” Story continues below ad Young said that while most fireballs tend to be about the size of a grain of sand or a small marble, Friday’s sighting was potentially a larger piece of material, possibly as large as a grapefruit. Current trend
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When it comes to these meteors, however, it’s not the size that matters—it’s the speed. “It’s not very big, but it’s coming at amazing speeds – tens of thousands of kilometers per hour,” he said. “So when it hits the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s just a huge amount of energy that has to be converted from speed to something else, so it turns into heat and light, and it basically just evaporates, and you have this beautiful effect.” Young said a very small meteor shower has been visible in the night sky in recent weeks, so the fireball could be connected to that. If you spotted the meteor, Young said you should report it to the International Meteor Organization. “It automatically puts it on a map and helps people track it, so it’s very, very important that you report it if you saw it.” 1:41 “Astronomical” says the expert © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
