Space debris not rare, but Alberta’s sighting was

Southern Alberta Newspapers Photo Courtesy of Facebook, Antony Grimm. EXPLOSION: A meteor about the size of a microwave oven was seen exploding within Earth’s atmosphere by countless Albertans earlier this month. When that happens, the phenomenon is called a bolide. This photo, courtesy of Facebook, shows the meteor’s flashing light as seen above Medicine Hat.

By Anna Smith
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The sky above southern Alberta was an unusual shade of green on the night of Nov. 13 for a brief moment, with a rare piece of space debris caught on cameras throughout the region.

The act of space debris itself entering the atmosphere isn’t rare, said astronomer and Eagle Butte Observatory owner Rod DeVries, but this sighting itself certainly was.

“About 50 tons of space debris actually lands on the Earth every day,” said DeVries. “Most of it is simply dust.” He continued on to explain that the phenomenon seen across the province was what’s known as a bolide, or a meteor that explodes within the earth’s atmosphere.

What people observed was a rock roughly the size of a microwave oven, said DeVries, which collided with the atmosphere at speeds in the range of 40,000 kilometres an hour. From there, the meteor exploded into what he referred to as “space gravel,” ranging everywhere from fine dust to pieces which scientists and hobbyists alike will be seeking out.

“One thing that’s really interesting,” said DeVries, “is that while most people think that a freshly landed meteorite – once it lands on the Earth, they’re called meteorites – would be hot to the touch, but they’re actually cool. What’s actually burning is the compressed air in front of the rock, not the rock itself.”

What makes this particular occurrence special is both the size of the bolide, and that it occurred overland where people were able to observe it, said DeVries, which will be a boon to astronomers; the captured footage will allow them to tell various things about the origin and trajectory of the debris.

“There’s enough video evidence that we can play that back, and we’ll be able to tell if this meteoroid originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, or if it was something different,” said DeVries. “Its angle of dissent and all of the information we can get now from all this video evidence will tell us a lot about the meteor, which makes the meteorite fragments from it even more valuable. There are people who make a living chasing these things.”

Valuable science will be done following this event, said DeVries, and he considers it exceptionally lucky that so many people were able to observe this rare event.