Spotted a meteor in Winnipeg? It’s likely not what you think
If you caught a glimpse of what looked like a meteor in Winnipeg skies over the last couple of days, it’s likely not what you think.
Photos have circulated across social media showing strange, cylindrical-like trails in the skies that look like meteors to some sky gazers.
Manitoba Museum Planetarium Astronomer Scott Young said he’s had several calls reporting meteor sightings that turned out to be nothing of the sort.
“I’ve had some calls where people say, ‘I saw this thing that looked like a meteor. I could see it for several minutes.’ None of them have turned out to be real meteors,” Young said.
CTV News submitted a photo of a similar sighting to Young for his analysis. He said in reality, the figure captured in the photo is likely a jet contrail – line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft exhaust fog or changes in air pressure. Young compares it to smoke that comes out of car tailpipes on a cold day.
“It looks very short because the weather conditions were such that the contrails were sort of fading away really quickly, so it didn’t like the typical one that stretches all the way across the sky. It was disappearing as the plane moved,” Young explained. “So it kind of looks like a meteor slowly moving across the sky.”
Young attributes the number of mistaken meteor sightings to the Orionid meteor shower currently happening over Manitoba. However, he says the full moon made it very difficult to spot.
“Basically, the moon right now is washing out the meteor shower, so this isn’t one that I recommend people go looking for,” he said, noting December’s Geminid meteor shower could present a better viewing opportunity.
Young said it can be tough to spot the difference between contrails and meteors, especially if the sun is lighting up the contrail from underneath. However, he said generally a meteor will glow and is not just a silhouette against a brighter sky, like a contrail. Meteors also move very quickly and are generally only visible to the human eye for a few seconds.
“A really long one might last five seconds, but anything longer than that is pretty much not a meteor,” he said.
Scott said in addition to jet contrails, folks have also mistaken the International Space Station for a meteor, which has been above Winnipeg in recent days.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
North Bay doctor accused of assaulting patient, threatening another
A North Bay doctor is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a patient with a weapon and threatening another person at the hospital, police say.