{"id":750405,"date":"2026-06-20T23:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750405\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T23:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:16:09","slug":"fireball-led-to-meteorite-debris-hitting-the-ground-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750405\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireball led to ‘meteorite debris’ hitting the ground, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fireball seen in the Sault last night resulted in meteorites touching down on an island in Lake Huron, according to a professor who specializes in the study of meteors <\/p>\n

A leading expert in the study of meteors is describing the fireball seen streaking across the sky last night<\/a> as one of the most \u201cpromising meteorite falls\u201d he\u2019s seen in many years.<\/p>\n

Western University professor Peter Brown<\/a> says the fireball witnessed in Sault Ste. Marie\u00a0is something that people might see once or twice a year \u2014 but last night\u2019s event was\u00a0significant because it produced a large amount of meteorite debris that hit the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Brown, a fireball is a type of meteor\u00a0\u2014 a light phenomena that happens when a rock from space hits the atmosphere \u2014 that\u2019s brighter, larger in size and produces a high amount of energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not super rare, but for most people, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event to be at the right place, right time, and see it,\u201d said Brown, who is a member of the Western Meteor Physics Group at Western University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that this happened in daylight is a little unusual, just because it means the meteor \u2014 the fireball \u2014 had to be pretty bright to get people’s attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sonic booms are one manifestation of the fact that the object got pretty deep into the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fireball was observed in Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding area at 8:13 p.m. on Friday, resulting in 93 eyewitness accounts<\/a> from Ontario, Michigan and Ohio being reported to the American Meteor Society overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The meteor probably weighed hundreds of kilograms when it first hit earth’s\u00a0atmosphere, Brown says, which led to\u00a0a fraction of it landing on the ground.<\/p>\n

Brown says radar measurements have indicated an \u201cextensive group and a fairly significant mass of meteorites\u201d that landed on the northeastern side of Cockburn Island, a heavily-wooded, sparsely-populated island in Lake Huron.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2026-06-20-peterbrown\"
\nDr. Peter Brown is a professor and meteor physicist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University. Photo supplied <\/p>\n

The meteor physicist believes the meteorite debris covers a 30-square-kilometre portion of the island, which is located east of St. Joseph and Drummond islands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rocks would be black on the outside, heavier than normal and often will be magnetic,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe fall area really is fairly confined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t seem to go too much into the lake \u2014 it’s right over the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although meteorite debris can be difficult to find in a heavily wooded area like Cockburn Island, Brown says the meteorite fall appears to have produced so much material that a search for rocks there may be worth the effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s something worth pursuing, and indeed cottagers on the island, I would encourage them to go out and just look around your yard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The public is encouraged to submit photos of potential meteors to the Western Meteor Physics Group via email at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fireball seen in the Sault last night resulted in meteorites touching down on an island in Lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,268322,66,306],"class_list":["post-750405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-saultlake-huronmeteorfireballwestern-universitymeteoriteexpertpeter-browncockburn-island","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750405","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=750405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}