{"id":637532,"date":"2026-04-30T01:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637532\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T01:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:22:12","slug":"bright-meteor-lights-up-vancouver-sky-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637532\/","title":{"rendered":"bright meteor lights up Vancouver sky overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you thought you saw a massive flash in the sky over Greater Vancouver shortly after midnight, you weren\u2019t imagining things.<\/p>\n

Scientists at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre confirm there was a meteor seen streaking across the sky around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rosanna Tilbrook, an astronomer at the centre, says because this particular meteor was \u201csuper bright,\u201d it is what experts refer to as a \u201cfireball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are meteors that are brighter than the planet Venus in the sky, so they can be seen really, really far away,\u201d Tilbook said.<\/p>\n

She says they received over 100 reports from people who witnessed the meteor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sightings of this fireball across the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Washington State, Oregon.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have seen quite a few fireballs lately, Tilbrook says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually going through a period that NASA calls \u2018fireball season,\u2019 which is kind of early in the year in the Northern Hemisphere between about February and April.\u201d<\/p>\n

A flash can be seen lighting up the sky over the Lower Mainland shortly after midnight on April 29, 2026. (Submitted)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, scientists aren\u2019t exactly sure why fireball season happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think maybe it\u2019s because the Earth is passing through more large debris at this time of year, so we see about a 10 to 30 per cent increase in fireballs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tilbrook says there have been a few seen over the Lower Mainland in the past few months.<\/p>\n

An example of this occurred on the evening of March 3<\/a>, when several British Columbians took to social media to share reports of a bright fireball in the night sky, along with a loud sonic boom.<\/p>\n

For this latest fireball, Tilbrook says she isn\u2019t sure just how big it was, but what is clear is that objects are falling through the Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere \u201cpretty regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the stat is that over the course of a day, about 44 tonnes of material falls into Earth\u2019s atmosphere from space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, some of that is really small.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, she says, if a very small rock or particle hits the atmosphere, you will see a \u201cshooting star,\u201d which is actually a meteor in the sky.<\/p>\n

But if it is a larger piece of material, that\u2019s when you can see a fireball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more material to sort of burn up in the atmosphere and create that big kind of flame,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Experts aren\u2019t able to say with certainty where these objects might make landfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can sort of predict the trajectory of where it might fall, but because fireballs often burst in the upper atmosphere, that means that the debris can be spread out over quite a wide range,\u201d said Tilbrook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really guaranteed that we\u2019re necessarily going to be able to find that debris. It actually helps if a fireball or a meteor makes landfall over a kind of wide, sort of flat and empty area.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the meteor actually hits the ground, it is then called a meteorite.<\/p>\n

Many meteorites are found in Antarctica, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just because Antarctica is very flat, open, there\u2019s not many features, and it\u2019s white,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a black meteorite is pretty easy to spot in Antarctica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan is also a good place to find meteorites or any other space debris, she says.<\/p>\n

Meteors can cause quite a thrill for those who see them.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely exciting to spot in the sky,\u201d Tilbrook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a bit scary as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you thought you saw a massive flash in the sky over Greater Vancouver shortly after midnight, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-637532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}