A dazzling burst and thundering noise witnessed by residents of British Columbia on Tuesday night were caused by a meteor streaking through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts have confirmed. According to Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society, the event was classified as a “fireball,” which signifies a meteor larger and brighter than usual. Lunsford explained that while most meteors are typically no larger than a pea, their rapid speed can make them visible in the night sky. He further elaborated that even a softball-sized meteor can create a brightness akin to a full moon, thus earning the fireball designation.
Johanna Wagstaffe, a meteorologist and science reporter for CBC News, stated that the occurrence was likely a meteor passing through the atmosphere. She pointed out that local seismographs displayed a spike around 9:10 p.m. PT, and the sonic boom observed is indicative of a meteor’s journey through the atmosphere. Wagstaffe mentioned that meteor sightings are uncommon in western North America, making it a noteworthy event when such phenomena are visually witnessed falling from space. The sonic boom, she explained, results from an object moving at extreme speeds through the upper atmosphere, compressing and heating the air in its path.
NASA, in a statement to The Canadian Press, confirmed the reports of the meteor over the Pacific Northwest shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Based on data from the American Meteor Society and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite, the meteor was visible approximately 98 kilometers above Coquitlam, B.C., moving slightly east of north at a speed of around 33 kilometers per second.
University of British Columbia astronomy professor Brett Gladman reported that the fireball was observed by individuals as far as Comox, Merritt, and Seattle, indicating a widespread sighting. He suggested that the fireball was likely caused by the entry of a rocky asteroid fragment, estimating its size to be around 10 to 100 centimeters. The visible meteor illumination, he explained, results from the heating of the atmosphere by the rock’s passage, while the audible boom is due to the object’s supersonic speed compared to sound. Gladman noted that the meteor seemed to have descended north of Coquitlam into a heavily wooded mountainous region, making any surviving fragments challenging to locate.