American Meteor Society
More than 500 reports from 3 Canadian Provinces and Montana (USA)
The AMS received more than 500 reports so far about a morning fireball event that occurred over Alberta, Canada on February 22, 2021 around 6:23am MST (13:23 Universal Time). The AMS #2021-978 event was mainly seen from the Canadian province of Alberta, but was also visible from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Montana (USA). The computer generated trajectory from the list of current witnesses, indicates a short path just north of Edmonton, Alberta.
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Photographs and videos
Our event page currently displays only 27 videos due to YouTube quota restrictions. We received more than 100 videos so far. We will add more videos each day until they are all posted. Below is a small compilation.
Fireball, Bolide?
Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.
Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.
With all the technology equipment available
for the novices can see everywhere these hobbies are helping us to explore space more and more. All kinds of people are watching, bc of lores and some science and history.
For myself I enjoy and seeing those phenomenons just as a hobby. I also enjoy exploring everything this planet has to offer too!!! I look forward to exploration without taking equipment with me up in space or down the deepest depths of the oceans.
I saw shooting star or ufo on Wednesday February 24th around 6 am on the way to work In lorain Ohio. I don’t know what it was but it was traveling way faster than a plane or anything I have saw in my life.
We are about one hundred Kms (plus or minus) away from where the Alberta meteorite likely landed. We do not have a direct trajectory line but we have the brilliant light from the landing on several 4K security cameras.
Alberta Feb 22, 2021 at 6:23:37 AM
Did scientists know that this fire ball was going he seen? If so, how long did they know about it before it was seen in the sky?
Saffron and All,
No, scientists cannot predict when fireballs will encounter the Earth. These objects are far too small to be detected prior to entering the atmosphere. The average meteor seen at night is only the size of a small pebble, only a few millimeters across. It only takes a meteor 1cm across to create a fireball. A meteor 10cm in size has the capability to create a flash as bright as the full moon. As you can see, these meteors and fireballs are small! Scientists have the capability to detect objects down to about 5 meters in size while still in outer space. Therefore objects smaller than 5m that enter the atmosphere are completely unpredictable. Luckily, nearly all of these objects completely disintegrate while still high in the atmosphere due to their tremendous velocity.
Apophis Asteroid?
We had a large fireball in Simpsonville South Carolina last night that was the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Did anyone send in any video?I was walking the dog and just stood there with my jaw hanging down
I saw one at 11:53 PM EST over Sumter, South Carolina and it lasted only for a second or two. It was thin, and white, but maybe because it was much farther than I was…?
Tuesday 3-16-21 my husband and I were driving home from Benson, AZ to Tombstone, it was 7:38pm and everything was dark, no lights except on our car. Suddenly directly in our line of vision was a brilliant green fireball with a yellow and red tail. It was shaped like a tadpole. It lasted about 5 seconds. We were stunned at its beauty.
About 10 years ago, it was September, at 12:00 noon, I was in my house in Tombstone, AZ standing in the living room when I saw through the living room window what I thought was lightning. Only it continued at a 45 degree angle till it hit the ground. I felt a wave of something that was pressure on my stomach. And there was a huge boom when it hit the ground and nobody knew the cause