[meteorite-list] Fireball Sighting Over Canada Excites Scientists

From: David Freeman <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:12 2004
Message-ID: <3BCCC52B.77F54A2D_at_fascination.com>

Maybe they'll be lucky and it DIDN'T land in a lake...
Dave Freeman

Ron Baalke wrote:

> http://www.canoe.ca/CalgaryNews/cs.cs-10-16-0029.html
>
> Alberta asteroid sighting excites scientists
> By PETER SMITH
> CALGARY SUN
> October 16, 2001
>
> An asteroid perhaps weighing 10 tonnes may have exploded in the atmosphere
> above Alberta, a rumbling boom being heard across Western Canada, say
> experts.
>
> Excited geological experts hope pieces of Sunday's asteroid may have crashed
> to Earth, and they want to get a chance to search for them.
>
> Alan Hildebrandt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre, is
> trying to gather information from as many witnesses as possible to pinpoint
> where the asteroid's remnants may have landed.
>
> "This object was probably an asteroidal fragment entering the atmosphere,
> something in the region of one to 10 tonnes," he said.
>
> So far, he's received sightings of the asteroid from Medicine Hat in the
> east to Mission, B.C., in the west.
>
> "It was seen over hundreds of kilometres of area, even though the region was
> partially cloudy," said Hildebrandt.
>
> "The loudest sounds reported so far seem to be from the Banff area, so that
> presumably means the terminal burst, the explosions at the end where the
> object fragmented, were relatively near there.
>
> "It definitely blew up in the atmosphere."
>
> Hildebrandt said the asteroid travelling at immense speed would experience
> intense pressure entering the atmosphere until it was literally crushed.
>
> "Much of the object disintegrated into dust, but some of the strongest
> pieces would survive," he said.
>
> But, Hildebrandt isn't completely confident of recovering pieces, because if
> they fell in the mountains, it's unlikely they'd be found.
>
> Randy Ilcisin was with three friends driving ATVs about 15 km west of Sundre
> when they heard the asteroid exploding at 2:30 p.m.
>
> "We all heard it and had no idea what it was. We thought it might be a
> distant landslide."
>
> Alan Dyer of the Calgary Science Centre is also collecting data on the
> sightings and hopes to hear from people further west and north who saw, or
> heard it.
>
> "We believe it may have passed over Lake Louise, several kilometres high in
> the atmosphere," he said.
>
> If you saw Sunday's asteroid, contact Dyer at 211-3731.
>
> Show your support at the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund - http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PKAXFNQH7EKCX/058-5084202-7156648
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Received on Tue 16 Oct 2001 07:39:24 PM PDT