News

On the evening of November 20, 2008, people across the prairies witnessed a spectacular light show as a meteorite penetrated the Earth’s atmosphere. The event garnered much media attention with eyewitness accounts flooding the airwaves, and people looking for pieces of the black rock scattered across fields and farmland in Buzzard Coulee.

“Within 24 hours of the incident, we had 350 e-mails from our fireball reporting website,” said Dr. Martin Beech, associate professor in astronomy at Campion College.

“The camera located on Campion’s roof also detected a flash. Clearly, something big had hit Earth’s atmosphere,” remarked Beech.
Combining research data and eyewitness accounts, Beech and fellow researchers Dr. Alan Hildebrand (University of Calgary) and Dr. Peter Brown (University of Western Ontario) were able to narrow down the area where the meteorite landed. One week later, a search team, led by Hildebrand, discovered pieces of black rock on the surface of a pond.

“This meteorite find is extremely significant. Given the amount of video data, mostly from surveillance cameras in the area, and eyewitness accounts, this is a very well documented fall,” said Beech.

“The video data will tell us how the meteorite came into the atmosphere and the speed it was traveling at. With this information we can determine the orbit of the initial object. This is a rare class of events, as there are only eight such meteorite falls with well defined orbits presently known,” Beech said.

The stone meteorite is one of the most common type to enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The vast majority of these come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Knowing its orbit and where it came from will help researchers answer a multitude of questions regarding the origins and structure of asteroids. It may also help to determine future falls and prevent more disastrous impacts.

Samples of the meteorite will be studied here and at the University of Calgary. Research on the interior make-up of the meteorite will begin this spring. Future research will investigate orbital changes in asteroids and may possibly provide a link to the origins of the solar system itself.