Posted by Orac on November 23, 2008 I figure after expressing dismay at a certain member of Canada’s government yesterday, I should point out that something cool did happen in Canada the other day. Specifically, a police video camera caught a meteor streaking across the night sky in Saskatoon, to land somewhere in western Canada:
And news reports:
It must have been an impressive sight to see.
May I be so bold as to point out this fabulous little bit of Canadian news:
Cool footage! I think it now qualifies for the ite suffix, doesn’t it?
A few years ago, New Zealand had a meteorite travel over the country, generating a large sonic boom that was widely reported over the South Island, e.g. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/08/new.zeland.meteor/
(Note the mispelling of ‘Zealand’ in the URL…)
More recently, a couple had one smash through the roof into their living room: “The rock hit a sofa and then bounced back up to the ceiling, before coming to rest under a computer.” (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3802865.stm)
More recently again there was McNaught’s comet, but that’s another topic.
Beware the pod people!
Orac, if a meteor lands inside of your home or on your property, do you get to keep it?
Orac, your Mom has a good question there!
This video was so cool when we saw it on the news that my son is now looking up information on meteors! His most recent obsessions are the Apollo missions, which he has memorized from the NASA site. Now, I will get to learn all about meteors!
Come on Orac, that was so totally a UFO. I can imagine the aliens onboard screaming “Wooooo!!!!” in exhilaration as they cruised by.
if a meteor lands inside of your home or on your property, do you get to keep it?
i imagine it varies with the jurisdiction your property is in, but i’d guess you do. once it’s landed, it’s pretty much a rock, after all.
According to US law (and perhaps Canadian as well) the meteorite belongs to whoever owns the land. If you’re a renter, you’re screwed. Just to be clear though, as far as I know, there has been no meteorite found (yet?) from this fireball. The title of the article is a bit misleading. Very few fireballs result in a meteorite being found.
Of course the meteor was several hundred miles away from this camera.
Wow, now that was COOL!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing that.
If the policeman can provide an exact position where he was, the direction established by the street gives a direction good to maybe one degree. The meteor would have first appeared about a hundred miles above the earth, and from the images, I’d guess it was about 300 miles away. That puts it, unfortunately, in the middle of some very rough and unpopulated terrain. Unless somebody close to it got a reading, it’s unlikely that this thing will ever be found.
It is likely that something reached the ground. Meteors decelerate in mid-air and often appear to burn out while there’s still a considerable amount of material in the air.
Figured; Global’s got it…
But anyway…
The next cool thing to happen in Canada will be when Stephen Harper takes off his mask and admits he’s been a Visitor all along…
Rat meat will become mandatory on all menus across the land; that and tofu.
In Quebec, there will be a “Quiet Resistance” to the new out-wordly regime promptly established – instead of a “V” we will see a “Z” spray-painted everywhere…
Z for ZTélé, as most nerds from La Belle Province are delusional enough to believe that a mega science-fiction production is actually shooting in their country and te Harper bit is all make-believe…
Fat chance it’s a ONLY a movie; after the Travolta/Battlefield Earth fiasco, they will never shoot anything of the kind north of the border EVER AGAIN.
Figured; Global’s got it…
But anyway…
The next cool thing to happen in Canada will be when Stephen Harper takes off his mask and admits he’s been a Visitor all along…
Rat meat will become mandatory on all menus across the land; that and tofu.
In Quebec, there will be a “Quiet Resistance” to the new out-wordly regime promptly established – instead of a “V” we will see a “Z” spray-painted everywhere…
Z for ZTélé, as most nerds from La Belle Province are delusional enough to believe that a mega science-fiction production is actually shooting in their country and the Harper bit is all make-believe…
Fat chance it’s a ONLY a movie; after the Travolta/Battlefield Earth fiasco, they will never shoot anything of the kind north of the border EVER AGAIN.
Nota Bene: keep only the second comment, date-stamped at 7:12pm.
Thank you!
i was in saskatchwan on a hunting trip when on the ride to the truck we seen it fall it looked so close we stopped the quad a the guid and i thoughtit was a flar
You really have to be careful of those flars. 
Thanks for these videos. I live in Saskatoon and missed the whole thing. I gather it flew over pretty fast anyway. I was probably busy watching my computer monitor that night and only would have noticed if the thing landed in the park across the street.
Just a heads-up — I was compelled to pick blogs to notify about that 6 random thing meme and decided to select yours based on this post. Hope you don’t mind. Feel free to ignore completely.
The video looks like the thing exploded above ground. The bright flash of an explosion seemed definitely to come from the sky, not up from the Earth. So we’re talking about looking for fragments scattered across a broad, relatively rugged and sparsely populated terrain.
Even if some meteorite fragments are found, how will you know they are from that particular event (unless they are found before they cool off, which is highly unlikely)?
Or is that just a dumb layman’s question?
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