© Facebook/Mont-Mégantic provincial park
This meteor was seen as far west as Toronto and as far east as Edmundston, N.B., according to the American Meteor Society.
Skywatchers across Eastern Canada and the U.S. spotted
an unexpected treat last night, as a meteor streaked across the sky.
The phenomenon was captured by a camera atop Quebec's Mont-Mégantic provincial park, about 80 kilometres east of Sherbrooke, Que., around 9:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Sébastien Giguère, scientific co-ordinator at the Mont-Mégantic Astrolab, confirmed Thursday morning that the fireball was indeed a meteor.
A meteor, also called a shooting star, is the light emitted from a meteoroid or an asteroid as it enters the atmosphere.
Meteors like ones seen during Perseid meteor showers are caused by particles that are the same size as a grain of sand or rice, Giguère explained. The bigger the particle, the bigger the meteor.
Last night's meteor was probably caused by something the size of a big rock, Giguère said.
"Hundreds of tonnes of meteorites fall through the sky every day," he said on Radio-Canada's
C'est pas trop tôt. "But yesterday, it was nice out and [the meteor] was centred on southern Quebec. That happens once every one or two years, so it's not totally rare, but it doesn't happen every day."
Vicky Boldo, a resident of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley Que., said she saw the "spectacular sight" while sitting in her hot tub last night.
"It passed directly over us and lit the yard up like a football field — it seemed to be just up over our heads beyond the trees," she said in an email.
Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received 100 reports about a meteor fireball seen over Great Britain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany on 23rd September 2016.