The remains of a 10-tonne asteroid that exploded in the sky near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border on November 20, 2008 have been located by University of Calgary researchers in a rural area near the city of Lloydminster.
Planetary scientist Dr. Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley located several fragments of meteorite late Thursday afternoon and are conducting a search of the area to collect some of the estimated thousands of meteorite fragments densely strewn over an estimated 20-square-kilometre area near the Battle River.
Background
The fireball first appeared approximately 80 kilometres above and just east of the border city of Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan, and traveled SSE towards the Battle River valley fragmenting spectacularly in a series of explosions.
The fireball penetrated the atmosphere at a steep angle of approximately 60 degrees from the horizontal and lasted about five seconds from 17:26:40 to 17:26:45 MST with the largest explosion at 17:26:44. The fireball was recorded on all-sky and security cameras scattered across Saskatchewan and Alberta in addition to being witnessed by tens of thousands of people who saw it streak across the sky, saw its arc- welding blue flash, or heard the subsequent explosions.
Dr. Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair in Meteor Physics at the University of Western Ontario said that a fireball this size only occurs over Canada once every five years on average. About ten fireballs of this size occur somewhere over the Earth each year.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Calgary.
ScienceDaily
Planetary scientist Dr. Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley located several fragments of meteorite late Thursday afternoon and are conducting a search of the area to collect some of the estimated thousands of meteorite fragments densely strewn over an estimated 20-square-kilometre area near the Battle River.
Background
The fireball first appeared approximately 80 kilometres above and just east of the border city of Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan, and traveled SSE towards the Battle River valley fragmenting spectacularly in a series of explosions.
The fireball penetrated the atmosphere at a steep angle of approximately 60 degrees from the horizontal and lasted about five seconds from 17:26:40 to 17:26:45 MST with the largest explosion at 17:26:44. The fireball was recorded on all-sky and security cameras scattered across Saskatchewan and Alberta in addition to being witnessed by tens of thousands of people who saw it streak across the sky, saw its arc- welding blue flash, or heard the subsequent explosions.
Dr. Peter Brown, Canada Research Chair in Meteor Physics at the University of Western Ontario said that a fireball this size only occurs over Canada once every five years on average. About ten fireballs of this size occur somewhere over the Earth each year.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Calgary.
ScienceDaily
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