August 24th Fireball over Canada – Possible Meteorite?
Occasionally, I like to search Twitter for meteorite or meteorites. Last night, a bunch of people in Canada suddenly started talking about meteorites. A large meteor was seen – also known as a fireball or bolide.
Those of us in the meteorite hobby know that when someone says they saw a meteorite fall “nearby”, it could mean almost anything – there is a common confusion between distance and angular distance. Still, with this many witnesses, it’s certainly possible that something reached the ground last night.
Below, I’ve compiled some of the highlights from Twitter. I’ve used ellipsis to indicate multiple tweets from the same user.
OTerry Just saw a massive firery meteorite fall in north york. I wonder where it landed. It was either really big or very close.
derekpurdy Saw an amazing meteor in the sky tonight it was lit up for a second or two. Bright Green/blue watched it break up, amazing. #Meteor #Ontario … it was something else! Never seen a meteor like that. Wow, all I can say is wow. (user is at 44.264135, -78.064328)
ChaiLatteAddict I think I just a meteor! It made a bang and it fell from the sky and it was blue-ish/green-ish. Please tell me how to confirm this! … @ptc555 I saw it east of the west part of Montreal, so it make sense we saw the same thing if you’re in Ont. Thank god you saw it too! … Meteor sighting in Canada. I’m thinking about going home to watch the news all night. I wanna know where it fell and how big it is! … I love the power of Twitter, we all saw something thinking we were crazy but we talk about it and it’s an amazing feeling.
markdelete i totally saw that possible meteor tonight in the sky. blue flash with red center. pretty crazy.
jsat2028 @argusrocks Hi, I saw it land! It was as high as a telephone pole when I saw it I was no more than 20 yards away. Report it, to who? … I could see the ripples from the heat it was blue, looked like a force field, and the head was a fireball.
mackaytaggart @kentboniface I work at a talkradio station in Toronto….we’re getting a lot of calls about the meteorite. Where were you when you saw it? … @MitchMirsky I work @ a Toronto radio station. Getting lots of calls from listeners who reported seeing it. May have landed in Barrie ON.
kentboniface Just saw a meteorite large enough to light up the entire sky. Looked like lightning, but not a cloud in the sky.
MitchMirsky Driving home tonite, we saw a meteorite land about 300 yards away.
ellehether saw the most breathtaking meteor tonight! blue, green and orange! it was hugeeee!
ptc555 @colorsounds you saw the meteorite in rochester? i saw it in toronto! … @mackaytaggart i saw the meteorite from Etobicoke (royal york and eglinton). i was looking north.
colorsounds Falling meteorite in #roc, burned green, about 8:50pm, very big and bright!
LouisSabourin @argusrocks I saw at about 9 pm a meteorite: very impressive from Gatineau Qc was looking south-west: Ottawa, maybe
M_A_R_A #meteor saw a giant bal of fire at St. Clair & Ossington….it was awesome!
DGConroy Saw the meteor come across at Yonge and Eg… looked very close! (user is at 43.646557, -79.388714)
itemtrader I just the the meteor to ! thought i was crazy – it was bright
craigebrown I too saw a meteor flash across the sky. Very quick, very bright.
vdiddy1103 I just saw a shooting star…or a comet…or a meteor. I wish Astronomy wasn’t boring as f—, maybe I would have learned something.
sarahhp89 May Have Just Seen Some Sort Of Meteor Flash :0 Stoked!
fadersmusic Decided to go investigate am old haunted hotel called the regal constellation and witnessed a very impressive meteor fireball in the skies
ChrisDawe Holy poo. Just saw what had to be a meteor burning up over Toronto! Anyone else see it?
CopySix Just saw a small meteorite (shooting star) come down from my Barrie backyard – so close you could actually ‘hear’ it.
nevdawg @ChaiLatteAddict I saw it from Milton, just south of Toronto. Pretty incredible.
BenTFleming holy s—, I just saw a meteor crash.
memories_music Just saw a meteorite!!!
dvasmusique holy shit comet in toronto! #toronto … yeah i saw it … spectacular … i was on my way to District 9 and i saw it over my apt. building on queen near bellwoods
So, will anything be found? It couldn’t hurt to look! If anyone has more information about this sighting, please contact me. If anything is found, I’m going to call this “the Twitter meteorite”.
hey im on twitter also yes i saw the fireball as well scared the shit outta me it was awesome i saw when it hit it was soooo bright i had heard some things that it might be part of a russian satellite if anyone has pics id love to see them
thanks
HEY U CAN REPORT IT ON HERE
http://www.imo.net/
I saw it last night just after 9 pm, in the southeastern sky over our Brampton, Ontario neighbourhood. Absolutely beautiful!!!
hey have they found the meteor yet or the impact site??
Yeah, me and my friends saw it while we were biking and it was directly west of Barrie. Id say that if it hit the ground it would be in southern Quebec north of Ottawa.
WOW has anyone gotten up there to see it
or take pictures or grab samples let me know
I was in a boat coming back from a fishing location on Mississagagon Lake when all of a sudden we saw what looked like a brief explosion of a greenish glow ball of light and then just as fast as it appeared it was gone.
I seemed like it was just over our heads only a couple of hundred feet away. If this is so then it landed in the lake or just on the northern shore where it is nothing but wilderness.
We didn’t know what it was but this explains it.
Thanks for speaking up.
TJ
I’ve been looking online to see if anyone saw what I saw since last month. I saw a meteor Aug. 24th in the Northern Adirondacks (Tupper Lake), in NY. It looked white/blue with a spark tail. It was so vivid that I actually thought I might hear an impact. It looked close but I’m wondering if the same one could have been seen so far apart.