A bright flash and loud boom witnessed by residents of British Columbia on Tuesday night were caused by a meteor blazing through the Earth’s atmosphere, experts have confirmed. Robert Lunsford from the American Meteor Society described the event as a “fireball,” which refers to a meteor larger and brighter than usual. While most meteors are typically the size of a pea, their high velocity can make them visible in the night sky. Lunsford explained that even a softball-sized meteor can generate a flash as bright as the full moon, categorizing it as a fireball.
According to meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe of CBC News, the event was likely a meteor passing through the atmosphere, as indicated by local seismographs registering a spike around 9:10 p.m. PT and the sonic boom associated with meteors entering the atmosphere. Wagstaffe highlighted the rarity of meteor sightings in western North America, emphasizing the excitement of witnessing celestial objects falling from space. She explained that a sonic boom occurs when an object speeds through the upper atmosphere, compressing and heating the air in front of it.
NASA confirmed the meteor sighting over the Pacific Northwest shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Based on reports from the American Meteor Society and data from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite, NASA stated that the meteor became visible about 98 kilometers above Coquitlam, B.C., traveling at a speed of approximately 33 kilometers per second. The meteor disintegrated at an altitude of around 65 kilometers above Greenmantle Mountain in B.C.’s Garibaldi Provincial Park after traversing about 71 kilometers through the upper atmosphere.
University of British Columbia astronomy professor Brett Gladman noted that observers saw the fireball as far west as Comox, as far east as Merritt, and as far south as Seattle, Washington. He suggested that the fireball likely resulted from the natural entry of a rocky asteroid fragment, estimating its size to be around 10 to 100 centimeters. The visible meteor glow is caused by the heated atmosphere from the rock’s passage, while the audible boom is due to the object’s supersonic speed exceeding that of sound. Gladman mentioned that the fireball seemed to descend north of Coquitlam into a dense, mountainous area, making it challenging to locate any surviving fragments on the ground.