Astronomer says large meteor behind Tuesday’s bright flash in the sky

What’s that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a meteor!

Lucky Saskatchewan residents who were outside Tuesday night got to see a bolide light up the night sky.

Lorna Janeczko saw it on her way home to White City.

“We were driving. It was a pretty dark night … I know it was really far away, but it looked like (it was) right there in front of us. It kind of just looked like a shooting star at first. At first, we looked and thought, ‘What the hell is that, a satellite?’ ” she said.

“It was just like a ball heading northwest right in front of us. It was purple, blue and white. It kind of shot across the sky for a few seconds, and then just fizzled out.”

A bolide is a big meteor that produces a bright flash when it hits Earth’s atmosphere.

“Essentially it’s like having a campfire with one piece of wood or 20 pieces of wood,” said Tim Yaworski with the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada – Saskatoon chapter.

He noted on average, two to three are seen every year and they’re more common nowadays because we have more ways of seeing them.

“We’ve got more devices out there that are recording now with things like doorbell cameras, dashcams,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yaworski believes this bolide may be extra special.

After viewing the video, he said there’s a chance it may be a meteorite, which is part of the meteor or bolide that survives the atmosphere and lands on earth.

“That one could be one that turned into a meteorite, but the problem is finding it,” he said. “In the prairies, the chances are it will be in somebody’s field.”

There is a group in the United States that can help pinpoint a possible landing spot.

People who have a video of the bolide can send it to them, along with details about when they saw it and what direction it was going in so the group can study it.

— With files from paNOW’s Jaryn Vecchio