'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
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
RCMP not investigating possible foreign interference cases related to Chiu, Dong: Duheme
Canada's federal police force is not investigating any possible instances of foreign interference in the cases of former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu and Liberal-turned-Independent MP Han Dong, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says.
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday at Donald Trump's hush money trial, describing for jurors a sexual encounter the porn actor says she had with him in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Federal government grants B.C.'s request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces
The federal government is granting British Columbia's request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces, nearly two weeks after the province asked to end its pilot project early over concerns of public drug use.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
CFL suspends Argos QB Chad Kelly at least nine games following investigation
The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength-and-conditioning coach against both the player and club.
Boy Scouts of America changing name for first time in 114 years, aiming for inclusivity
The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history and will become Scouting America. It's a significant shift as the organization emerges from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims and seeks to focus on inclusion.
opinion Tom Mulcair: Trudeau's handling of Poilievre's 'wacko' House turfing a clear sign of Liberal desperation
When Speaker Greg Fergus tossed out Pierre Poilievre from the House last week, "those of us who have experience as parliamentarians simply couldn't believe our eyes," writes former NDP leader Tom Mulcair in his column for CTVNews.ca
MPs agree Canadian gov't should improve new disability benefit
The federal government needs to safeguard the incoming Canada Disability Benefit from clawbacks and do more to ensure it actually meets the stated aim of lifting people living with disabilities out of poverty, MPs from all parties agree.