Dozens of Ontario residents say they think they saw a meteor streak across the sky Sunday afternoon, and an expert says there is little doubt that is what they spotted.
Ontario Meteor
© Laurence/Twitter
Peter Brown, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who studies meteors and meteorites, says the widespread eyewitness reports and images are consistent with a meteor.

Many Ontarians took to social media or contacted the American Meteor Society to report either a flash of light or a loud rumble.


The reports came in from various southern Ontario communities and parts of the United States.
Unconfirmed reports indicate loud blast over Peterborough and GTA was result of a meteor. Stay tuned for updates.

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The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) May 04, 2014

Meteor just went over cobourg/porthope and broke the sound barrier. Just heard the sonic boom #meteor

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Lily Garner (@Lily_garner) May 04, 2014

Looks like a meteor exploded over Toronto/Peterborough today. Raptors were just eliminated - coincidence? #dinoRock

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Jeff/e/ (@JeffSmalley) May 04, 2014
The meteor society posted a comment from a person who said he was from Toronto and that the flash was brighter than a lightening bolt.

Dana Petrillo, of Colbourg, Ont., tweeted that her house vibrated and that she first thought there had been an earthquake or explosion.

"It was a really low rumble that just reverberated through the walls. It really wasn't a shaking, like in an earthquake, but more like a wave. It really did feel like an explosion," she said in an email.

Most of the equipment the university has to track meteors was not in operation Sunday afternoon, but a series of microphones the university has in place did detect a shockwave, Brown said.

Based on the data and the eyewitness reports it appears the shockwave occurred in the area of Peterborough, Ont., and its characteristics allowed for an estimate of the size of the meteor, said Brown.


"The energy is somewhere in the order of a few tens of tons of TNT explosive equivalent," he said in an interview Sunday night. "That would translate into something on the order of half to one metre in diameter and that's going to be a mass of ....a few metric tons."

It's possible some fragments hit the ground, Brown added.


"This clearly was a pretty massive event, lots of mass, so on that basis alone I think we have a pretty good chance that meteorites would make it to the ground," he said.

The odds of fragments hitting the ground depend on how fast the meteor was travelling - a relatively slow moving fireball would make it more likely that some meteorites may be found.

"It would not surprise me if meteorites are found," Brown said.
Taken in Port Hope, ON at 4:20 pm. Looked like meteor exploding. Heard BOOM. Then rumble. Ground shook #meteor http://t.co/RQfZ7r55Do -
DC-Photography (@DCPhotographyON) May 05, 2014
Huge cloud of smoke from meteor ! Oshawa/Courtice http://t.co/YuPdYCrz9M -
stephanie lupton (@Slupton89) May 04, 2014
#meteor, #Peterborough http://t.co/bG1nLrU8ct -
Lawrence (@lhaddlesey) May 04, 2014
Here's the photo of the #meteor contrail over GTA and Durham! Saw this from Whitby.... Seeing this made my day http://t.co/gINzrFeMc9 -
Veronica (@iVeronica) May 04, 2014
@13WHAM All I have is smoke trail of the #ROC #Meteor http://t.co/r5xI9pE7TI -
Jesse Jordan (@jessejordan06) May 04, 2014
@13WHAM from the meteor I saw in Greece ny http://t.co/D2b4a2pFg4 -
justin muench (@JustinTiim3) May 04, 2014
Note the small circular cloud. It's well high up. That my friends was a meteorite methinks http://t.co/DdMbYS6C6y -
Rich Wigmore (@Ricwi) May 04, 2014

Source: Canadian Press