(meteorobs) News on the Canadian prairie fireball

[Bruce McCurdy]

Another report of the Canadian prairie fireball which is worth forwarding to the list, courtesy Murray Paulson of Edmonton RASC. 

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A friend of mine sent me this note from his brother that lives in Lloydminster   M.  >>>

Murray



My brother-in-law saw a big flash and looked up to see the tail end of the meteor.

We was on his way into the A&W in Lloydminster, he lives there.

He said it was like a strong welding flash which lit everything up. He said it the tail headed SW of his location.

When he got into the store everyone was gob smacked and the whole place was silent.

Someone asked him what was going on and he said it was the light from a meteor or something.

Some person started jabbering/crying/panicking, he thought they were silly and that they must have just seen a comet movie or something.



Brian M.
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There are reports of a $10,000 reward for a chunk of meteorite on EBay, and this of the notorious collector Robert Haag:

http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/Local/article/145251
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The "fallout" from this event has been unprecedented, with over 400 eyewitness reports submitted to the Meteorite Impact and Advisory Committee (MIAC) site within the first 24 hours. It was front page news two days in a row, and made the CTV National News. 

So far I have heard no (legitimate) reports of any finds on the ground. You can be assured the local scientific community is all over this, led by Dr. Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary who played a key role in the Tagish Lake meteorite recovery. Preliminary estimates put the object at between 1 and 10 tonnes, an entry speed of about 15 km/s, with an estimated peak magnitude of -20 on the ground directly below the terminal burst.  It is possible that hundreds of meteorites may have fallen in  a strewn field some 5 to 8 km in extent. 

Some of us in the amateur community have been alerted of a prospective search party once the preliminary interviews and analysis constrain a possible fall area. 

This is all very exciting.

Bruce
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