Experts Confirm Meteor Strike In Ontario [Video]
The social media reports of a meteor strike in Ontario have been validated by experts. Reports that claimed an explosion was heard and felt are also probably accurate, according to preliminary investigations. Sheri Adams, a Peterborough resident, said that she heard a wooshing sound followed by the sound of impact. “I didn’t know if it was thunder, because there was no lightning,” Adams said. “People (in the building) were scurrying in the hall because they thought one of our elevators had dropped.” Sheri was one of many people in the area who reported, photographed, or videotaped the meteor’s descent to earth. The meteor in Ontario was not as massive as the one that caused damage in Russia, but it was still a significant event experts say.
Meteor just went over cobourg/porthope and broke the sound barrier. Just heard the sonic boom #meteor
— Lily Garner (@Lily_garner) May 4, 2014
Taken in Port Hope, ON at 4:20 pm. Looked like meteor exploding. Heard BOOM. Then rumble. Ground shook #meteor pic.twitter.com/RQfZ7r55Do
— DC-Photography (@DCPhotographyON) May 5, 2014
Astronomy expert, Professor Peter Brown, of the University of Western Ontario, told CTV News that a meteor passed over Ontario about 130 kilometers east of Toronto before 4:30 pm on Sunday. The university’s microphones did detect the shockwave Brown stated, “The energy is somewhere in the order of a few tens of tons of TNT explosive equivalent.” According to CBC News, Brown said that the meteor is estimated to be up to a meter long and that the meteor was large enough that meteorites may be discovered on the ground.
Earth sciences professor at Western University Phil McCausland agreed. He said that the meteor over Ontario most likely weighted about one ton when it hit the earth’s atmosphere. “We think that the event is probably somewhat to the east of Peterborough in terms of where it occurred and in terms of ground location,” McCausland told CTV News. “And we’re thinking that it’s possible that it could have produced meteorites on the ground.”
Margaret Campbell-Brown, professor of physics and astronomy at Western University, explained that the meteor captured on camera was about a hundred times brighter than the full moon. She added, “Which is unusual in meteors, so this was a large event.” Global News reported that the event in Ontario is not believed to be associated with the Eta Aquariids meteor shower. Experts have calculated a preliminary orbit for the event and by their calculations, it seemed more likely that the object was an asteroid, rather than of a comet. The Eta Aquariids travel around 60 kilometers per second, but this object was moving more slowly at a rate less than 20 kilometers per second.
The American Meteor Society’s website still shows the investigations of the apparent meteor strike in Ontario as pending.
