Media Relations
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
 
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jeff Renaud, Senior Media Relations Officer
519-661-2111, ext. 85165

Friday, October 24, 2008

Western cameras capture "fireball" in the sky; May have crashed
near Guelph,
Ont.
By Communications Staff

For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor
Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to
Earth. The team of astronomers suspects the fireball dropped meteorites in a
region north of Guelph, Ont. that may total as much as a few hundred grams
in mass.

The Physics and Astronomy Department at Western has a network of all-sky
cameras in southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors.

On Wednesday, October 15 at 5:28 a.m., all seven cameras of Western's
Southern Ontario Meteor Network recorded a bright, slow fireball in the
predawn sky.
 
Associate Professor Peter Brown and Phil McCausland, a postdoctoral
researcher in Planetary Science, are hoping to enlist the help of local
residents in recovering one or more possible meteorites that may have
crashed.
 
"This event was a relatively slow fireball that made it far into the Earth's
atmosphere. Most meteoroids burn up by the time they hit an altitude of 60
or 70 kilometres from the ground," explains McCausland, who is heading to
the region next week to investigate. "This one was tracked by our all-sky
camera network to have penetrated to an altitude of about 37 kilometres and
it slowed down considerably, so there is a possibility that at least one and
possibly several small meteorites made it to the ground."
 
By knowing the trajectory from the camera observations, the researchers can
also track backwards to get the orbit of the object before it hit the Earth.
 
"The meteorite was on a typical Earth-crossing asteroid-type orbit, so we
also expect that it is a stony-type meteorite," says McCausland.
 
In March, the network of all-sky cameras captured video of a meteor falling
to Earth that may have crashed in the Parry Sound area.
 
For high-resolution images, videos and maps,

http://www.physics.uwo.ca/research/meteor_physics/october2008-fireball.html
 
For more information or for assistance in identifying possible meteorites,
please contact Phil McCausland at 519-661-2111, ext. 87985.
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