Fireball lights up night sky over Edmonton

A few Edmonton-area skywatchersreported seeing a huge fireball light up the sky above northern AlbertaThursday night.

Dozens of people took to social media to report that a meteor was spotted around 10:45 p.m. above the Edmonton skyline.

"I was looking out my balcony when I saw a bright ball of light flying through the air," wrote one witness on Reddit.

"It eventually disappeared/broke up mid flight!"

• Fire in the sky: Albertans report fireball over province

Six people from Edmonton to Crossfield, Alta., filed reports of fireball sightings to the American Meteor Society on Thursday evening.

One reporter said the mysterious object glowed like a train and even sparkled a bit as it flashed over Edmonton.

The University of Alberta's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences isalso investigating multiple reports.

'Falling from the sky'

Scott Furry wason his balcony in northeast Edmonton when he sawa large orange streak "falling from the sky."

He emailedCBC Edmonton to report the strange sight.

"It wasnot clear if this was a large piece of space junk, meteorite, or aircraft," Furry wrote.

"The tail of the debris was quite long and moderately bright... I expect 911 call centres are busy at the moment."

MarkZalcik, an amateur astronomerwith the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, also spotted the fireball low in the sky. He was parked in north Edmonton when something caught his eye.

"I was just looking out the windshield and just out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bright lightmoving light and as I focused in onit, it disappeared behind some trees," Zalciksaid in an interview with CBC News on Friday.

"It was apretty bright fireball. It was a deep orange colour and it left behind kind of anorange-coloured wake."

Zalcik said it's possible a piece of rock survived its fiery flight through the Earth's atmosphere. He's hopeful something will be recovered.

"It's needle in a haystack kind of proposition," he said."It all depends on the number of the reports and the accuracy of the reports. It's really hard to say."

Zalciksaid meteorites are common but are not alwaysspotted on their fall to Earth. Even fewer are ever recovered.

"If you're lucky, you get lots of fragmentation," he said. "If you see little sparks coming from the fireball, that's a good sign because that means several pieces may have fallen."