'Where did it land?': Doorbell camera captures meteor over Rocky Mountain House
A doorbell camera in Rocky Mountain House captured a meteor flying through the sky Tuesday night.
People in Leduc, New Sarepta and south Edmonton also reported seeing a flash in the sky and hearing a loud boom. At first, due to the freezing rain warning in effect for many parts of Alberta, people thought the flash of light and loud noise could potentially be thunder and lightning.
Some even reported that their houses shook from the booming sound.
CTV News Edmonton meteorologist Josh Classen said no lightning was detected in the area.
"Based on what we know, it looks like it's a fire ball from the entry of a space rock, which we sometimes call a meteoroid coming through the atmosphere," said University of Alberta Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Chris Herd.
Kaitlyn Kostyniuk's doorbell camera on her home in Rocky Mountain House captured the meteor flying by.
"I heard a rumbling, it sounded like a semi-truck slowing down and I was like that's pretty weird because we're pretty far away from any traffic noise," she said.
Kostyniuk said she didn't think much of it until her phone lit up saying there was motion detected on the front porch camera.
"Sure enough I open up the app and I see a big ball of light flashing across the sky."
The loud bang that accompanied the flash of light was a sonic boom from the meteor, according to Herd.
"The loud boom is not typical, it doesn't happen all that often. In this case, it suggests the rock was of some particular size, we don't even have an estimate at that yet," he said.
"It is a sonic boom basically, it's the result of the rock slowing down really quickly in the atmosphere. That's also what causes the light."
Herd says seeing a meteor is uncommon, but hearing the sonic boom from it passing through the atmosphere is even more rare.
"It suggests that it was larger than the size of a pebble sort of thing, something bigger than that, that had more energy," said Herd.
He pointed out videos of the meteor can be uploaded to the American Meteor Society so they can further triangulate where potential meteorites may have ended up.
"There could be meteorites on the ground," said Herd. "We don't really know the area so we can't really narrow that down."
Herd asks anyone who finds a meteorite to contact the University of Alberta because anything that recently arrived from space has significant scientific value.
"We tend to encourage people not to touch them with their hands. Not that there's anything dangerous about them, but the more sort of pristine, the more sort of uncontaminated, even from finger grease things like that, the better that we can understand what the intrinsic properties of the rock are," he said.
Kostyniuk said she shared her video online in the hopes of finding out what happened to the meteor.
"I want to know, did it land? Where did it land? Like, I'm so excited," said Kostyniuk.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Breast cancer screening should start at age 40, Canadian Cancer Society says
The Canadian Cancer Society says all provinces and territories should lower the starting age for breast cancer screening to 40.
DEVELOPING Live updates as Stormy Daniels testifies at Trump hush money trial
Adult film star Stormy Daniels is on the stand a second time Thursday as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s hush money case continues in Manhattan. Follow live updates here.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Canadian-Israeli man shot dead in Egypt; claim links killing to Gaza
A Canadian man 'of Jewish Israeli descent' has been shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected criminal case, a security source said, while a previously unknown militant group said it carried out the attack in reaction to the war in Gaza.
Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Ontario man frustrated after $3,500 paving job leaves driveway in shambles
An Ontario man considering having his driveway paved received a quote from a company for $7,000, but then, another paver in the neighbourhood knocked on his door and offered half that rate.
Why these immigrants to Canada say they're thinking about leaving, or have already moved on
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
Bank of Canada says financial system is stable, but risks remain
The Bank of Canada says the Canadian financial system is stable, but risks remain due to debt servicing costs among households and businesses and stretched valuations of financial assets.
BREAKING Sheldon Keefe out as head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired head coach Sheldon Keefe. The team made the announcement Thursday after the Original Six franchise lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.