A brilliant flash and loud boom witnessed by residents of British Columbia on Tuesday night were caused by a meteor streaking through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts have confirmed. Robert Lunsford from the American Meteor Society described the event as a “fireball,” indicating that it was larger and brighter than typical meteors. While most meteors are usually no larger than a pea, their high speed can make them visible in the night sky.
According to Lunsford, even a softball-sized meteor can create a flash as bright as a full moon and be classified as a fireball. The rapid duration of the flash ruled out the possibility of human-made space debris, confirming that the event was a natural fireball composed of stone, metal, or a blend of both materials.
Meteorologist and science reporter Johanna Wagstaffe of CBC News suggested that the phenomenon was likely a meteor passing through the atmosphere. She pointed out that local seismographs registered a spike at around 9:10 p.m. PT, with the accompanying sonic boom serving as clear evidence of a meteor’s journey through the atmosphere. Wagstaffe highlighted that meteor sightings are not common in western North America, making the event particularly noteworthy.
NASA corroborated reports of the meteor over the Pacific Northwest shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. The space agency confirmed that the meteor was visible approximately 98 kilometers above Coquitlam, B.C., traveling at a speed of about 33 kilometers per second. The meteor disintegrated at an altitude of around 65 kilometers above Greenmantle Mountain in Garibaldi Provincial Park.
University of British Columbia astronomy professor Brett Gladman noted that observers witnessed the fireball across a wide area, from Comox in the west to Merritt in the east and Seattle, Wash., in the south. He explained that the fireball was likely caused by the natural entry of a rocky asteroid fragment into the earth’s atmosphere, with initial estimates suggesting a size of 10 centimeters expanding to potentially 100 centimeters. The glowing meteor was a result of the atmosphere heating up from the rock’s passage, while the sonic boom occurred due to the object moving faster than the speed of sound.
Gladman mentioned that the fireball seemed to descend north of Coquitlam into a densely forested, mountainous region, making it challenging to locate any surviving fragments.