'One to remember': Bright meteor streaks across Manitoba sky

Several people in Manitoba got a clear look at a celestial sight Thursday night.

A meteor was caught streaking across the sky in the province, with cameras catching it in Winnipeg and other areas north of the city.

“This is basically the larger cousin of the typically falling star, shooting star, or meteor, whatever you want to call it that we see sort of all the time, but this is a bigger version of it,” said Scott Young, planetarium astronomer with the Manitoba Museum.

“They're pretty rare for an individual to see; we don't spend a lot of time looking at the sky.”

Videos of the meteor, which Young said is “one to remember,” show it giving off a bright green fireball as it burns.

“As these things come in through the atmosphere, and they basically burn up, their materials give off different colors of light,” he said. “And so, depending on what the material is, and how fast it's going, you get these different colors.

“Green is a very commonly seen one. Partly because the things that are in meteorites, iron and nickel and other trace elements like that copper, give off green, but also because our eyes are most sensitive to green light, when we're using our night vision, and that's what most people would have had is their night time vision.”

In addition to Winnipeg, the meteor was also spotted in North Dakota, northwestern Ontario and in Manitoba’s Interlake region, Young said.

He adds people in those areas should check their doorbell or dashboard cameras to see if they have spotted something.

Reports can be filed on the American Meteor Society's website.