Twice in as many mornings this week early birds have reported fiery objects in the atmosphere above Edmonton
EDMONTON November 27, 2009 — Ah to be an early riser: first to the paper, first to the coffee, and, of course, first to the occasional fireball scorching through the sky.
On Thursday at about 7:15 a.m., a fireball was spotted traveling low along the horizon from the northeast to the east, according to the Telus World of Science. The next day, on Friday, a second was eyed in the west at about 5:50 a.m.
The reports come just over a year after a spectacular meteor lit up Edmonton’s skies as it disintegrated in the atmosphere on Nov. 20, 2008.
Parts of that celestial missile crashed into the earth and were found in fields near Buzzard Coulee, Sask., just south of Lloydminster. But the remaining chunks of these most recent meteors will be much harder to find, said Francis Florian, the director of public programming at the World of Science.
The Buzzard Coulee meteor was seen by hundreds of people and burst through the atmosphere at a steep angle, limiting the area of search.
“The one seen yesterday morning seemed to be coming in at a much shallower angle,” Florian said. That means it’s less likely to have made it through the atmosphere at all.
”If it did peter out and it did make it down to the earth, the areas of search would be much greater ... maybe even hundreds of kilometres.”
Anyone who saw the meteor is asked to make a formal report to the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre at the University of Calgary. The more reports they get, the better chance they have of finding out if and where any meteorites will be found.
Source:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Fireballs+spotted+Edmonton/2277919/story.html
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