The European Space Agency said that a fireball that flew over Ontario, Canada, early on Saturday was the sixth thing to be seen in space before it hit Earth. Early Saturday morning, word spread among professional and amateur astronomers that a meteor was coming and that people should keep their telescopes and cameras pointed at the sky.
Where did The Meteor Hit?
The Minor Planet Center, which keeps track of things in the solar system, said the meteor hit the Earth’s atmosphere over Brantford, Ontario, at about 3:27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
The Minor Planet Center said that images taken at Mount Lemmon Survey near Tucson, Arizona, showed the fast-moving object. The temporary name for it is #C8FF042.
The operations manager for the American Meteor Society, Mike Hankey, was in Maine setting up cameras to watch the sky when someone in Germany called him at 4 a.m. to tell him about the meteor.
He said that people started talking about the meteor about three hours before.
“When these things happen, the astronomy community wants to know where the impact happened, and if any meteorites survived, they want to get them back as soon as possible,” Mr. Hankey said.
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What Does the American Meteor Society Say?
The American Meteor Society says that a fireball is a meteor that is usually brighter than Venus in the morning or evening sky. On Saturday afternoon, 33 people in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario had seen a fireball.
Some people in and around Hamilton, Ontario, on social media said they heard a loud boom. Using these reports and radar readings, astronomers could figure out where the meteorites probably hit Earth.
Mr. Hankey said, “If any meteorites survived, they might be able to be found near Grimsby, Ontario, or St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls.”
The European Space Agency says that 40 to 100 tonnes of space matter hit Earth daily, most tiny particles.
Mr. Hankey said astronomers did not know the size of Saturday’s meteor. Meteoroids are small pieces of asteroids or comets. When they hit Earth’s atmosphere, they turn into meteors. Meteorite: A meteoroid that makes it through its fiery fall and lands on the ground.
According to the European Space Agency, there have been more efforts in recent years to find and track large asteroids, which can be several kilometers across, before they hit Earth.
The agency says that since 2008, five other objects have been found in space before they hit Earth. This is because of better observation tools and more global cooperation.
Suppose these space objects can be found before they hit Earth. In that case, the government can warn people to stay away from windows if a medium-sized meteor is going to fly by and explode, which could break windows or send out asteroid deflection missions to stop larger ones from hitting.
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A YouTube Video Shows Fireball Flashes Above Ontario and Parts of the U.S.
The European Space Agency said that the bright meteor was the sixth thing seen in space before it hit Earth.
