Posted: 31 May 2014 05:00 AM PDT
Reports came flooding into police, firefighters, news services, and social media throughout Southern Ontario recently of a very bright light streaking across the sky, followed by an extremely loud boom. According to experts like Peter Brown of The University of Western Ontario the descriptions from these witnesses certainly line up with the characteristics of a Meteor.
Although most of the Meteor tracking equipment at the university was not in operation at the time since the phenomena occurred on a Sunday, there was a shock wave detected. That confirmation combined with the eyewitnesses describing a flash that was about as bright as lightning, and a boom that was more like an explosion than thunder, definitely makes a meteor the most likely candidate. An investigation will certainly be under way to confirm this hypothesis; with Brown estimating in the interview that this theoretical meteor could possibly be as large as a meter. With a meteor that large, there is a good chance that meteorite fragments could be found in the area near Orangeville.
One user on Facebook writes:
There were no emergencies that required the assistance of firefighters, but the volume of reports did cause police to investigate the flash and boom. Officers who acted on the scene found no evidence that the reported event was caused by anything earthly such as an exploding transformer or some kind of fire. This lack of evidence for the cause of this disruption being man made also lends credence to the meteor hypothesis.
The really good news is that whatever the cause of this event was, there have been no reported injuries or property damage related to them. The worst thing that happened seemed to be that many local residents received a bit of a fright on what should have been a quiet Sunday.
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