Home security cameras have caught the moment a falling object lit up the skies over Canada.
The fireball, which was likely a meteor according to experts in local reports, could be seen in the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan shortly after 6am on Monday.
#meteor #Alberta #YYC lighting up the morning sky looking north in NW Calgary. @jordanwitzel @GlobalCalgary pic.twitter.com/QTq7gqQLii
— redevil (@redevil_69) February 22, 2021
Colin Brown, from Citadel, Calgary, found footage of the astronomical sighting on his doorbell camera after a bright light poured through his window.
“I thought someone was pulling into the driveway with their car,” the 32-year-old engineer, originally from Helensburgh, Scotland, told the PA news agency.
“I went to the front window and didn’t notice anything, that’s when I checked the camera… instead I saw the meteor which really surprised me.”
Chris Herd, curator of the meteorite collection at the University of Alberta, told Canadian outlet Global News the flash was likely caused by a meteor.
“It means that some kind of a rock has come through the atmosphere and the outside is heated up to give us that bright fireball that people have caught on their doorbell cameras and other places,” he said.
Ariane Ilao, also from Calgary, did not notice the meteor when it passed in the morning but later found footage of it on his front door security camera.
“I saw all the tweets… so I had to check my front window camera to see if it caught anything in the sky,” said Mr Ilao.
“Glad it was caught on camera as it was very cool to watch over and over again.”
