Multiple observers in Alberta reported seeing a bright object in the sky Thursday evening, with several sightings logged with the American Meteor Society.
The society’s online reporting system lists several pending reports from March 5, including sightings in Calgary, Banff, Medicine Hat, Wetaskiwin and Mînî Thnî.
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The Alberta reports shown on the page were logged between about 7:52 p.m. and 8:03 p.m. Mountain Time, with several entries coming from the Calgary area.
Some of the reports describe what may have been a fireball.
The American Meteor Society describes a fireball as a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude −4, roughly comparable in brightness to the planet Venus in the night sky.
Witness descriptions vary. One Calgary observer reported fragmentation, writing that there were “Parts splitting off and streaking alongside.”
Another observer in Mînî Thnî wrote that the object was “in many small bits” and “moved extremely slow,” adding it looked like “a light fire and every single piece of debris was moving in unison.”
The American Meteor Society collects public reports of bright meteors from around the world. When multiple sightings appear to describe the same event, those reports can sometimes help researchers estimate the object’s path through the atmosphere.
As of Friday morning, the Alberta entries remained listed as pending reports, and it was not yet clear whether they all refer to the same object.
Anyone who believes they witnessed the object can submit a report through the American Meteor Society’s website.
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