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Meteor Lights Up Canadian Sky Edmonton police cruiser catches huge fireball on camera

By  ANDREW GREINER

Updated 3:06 AM EDT, Sat, Nov 22, 2008

Related Topics: Alan Hildebrand

27 Comments   Post a comment Post a Comment

Ian McKinnell

The meteor that lit up Canada last Thursday was the largest such event in more than a decade.

 

Scientists are still looking for fragments of a meteor that burned across the Canadian sky Thursday evening. Reports of a fireball in the sky spread from Edmonton to Regina--- for those not versed in Canadian geography that's about 800 miles apart, or the same distance as Manhattan to Chicago.

A police cruiser captured the fireball on video.

Planetary scientist Alan Hildebrand from the University of Calgary told a Canadian newspaper that it was likely the largest meteor to streak across the country in more than a decade.

Hildebrand is in the midst of interviewing witnesses and trying to track down fragments of the meteor.

“Right now, the important thing is not searching because we don't know which field to search in. It's a big world,” Mr. Hildebrand said. “What's important now is finding proximal eyewitnesses, so you know where meteorites might have fallen.”

Comments (27)

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  • Tom Cunard Thursday, Jan 1 at 8:53 AM FLAG COMMENT FYI on the night of Sunday, Nov. 23, I'm not sure but I think at around 9 pm my wife and I were driving south on I-95 about 50 miles N of Savannah, GA when we saw directly south probably the finest view of a shooting star that either of us have ever seen. It appeared to be travelling in an E to W direction at an elevation of about 45 degrees from the horizon. was e
  • Get the facts Friday, Nov 28 at 11:53 AM FLAG COMMENT Here is a link to the latest news, they found the fragments from the metorite today - Nov 28,08 http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=4d92286c-6f85-4ae0-8154-b755e7b3ae79
  • David Tuesday, Nov 25 at 7:07 PM FLAG COMMENT I saw this in oregon on 11/23
  • Get the facts Monday, Nov 24 at 6:59 PM FLAG COMMENT This happened at 5:27pm MST on Nov 20th, and Alaska is not to the West of Alberta, but to the VERY north west, 1900 miles NW.
  • NONE FAKER Monday, Nov 24 at 5:07 PM FLAG COMMENT HEY FAKER-----------------NOT FAKE, NOT FAKE, NOT FAKE.

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