Bright green fireball spotted in southwestern Ontario

Meteor fireball over Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. (Source: The Zorr/YouTube)

There are several reports of a bright green fireball seen in southwestern Ontario, and as far away as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

University of Windsor astronomer Steve Pellarin said the reports came in around 8:50 p.m. on Sunday from Windsor, London, Ont., and several states.

He said it was a bright green colour, half as bright as a full moon, but much brighter than the brightest star-like object in the sky (planet Venus). Most reports estimate the visual magnitude at around -11.

“Appears to have been visible for 3.5 seconds fairly low over the western horizon heading west (downward toward horizon)," he said. "Captured by several home security cameras."

A video of the fireball was posted on YouTube from Michigan.

Windsor resident Angelo Tiseo was also caught the fireball on his home security camera.

Windsor resident Angelo Tiseo was one of the people who caught the fireball on his home security camera. (Source: Angelo Tiseo)

“As there are no current regular meteor showers that are active, it is likely that this meteor was what we call a 'sporadic' or random meteor, that approached the Earth from the direction basically opposite to the sun,” said Pellarin.

He added it would have been probably about the size of a large pebble or stone that could fit into a pill bottle.

Pellarin said the greenish colour that was seen probably indicates that this rock contained a fair bit of nickel in it, as many meteoroids contain the metals iron and nickel and nickel atoms glow bright green when they are superheated by the friction with molecules in Earth's atmosphere as they plow through it.

“A piece may have survived to hit the ground, but often the heat of entry into the earth's atmosphere expands the rock and breaks it into dust,” said Pellarin. “The Earth is estimated to absorb almost 14 tons of meteor dust every day!”

He said it did not appear to explode at the end of its visibility and that it likely broke up well up in the atmosphere, perhaps 12 to 27 kilometres up.

Here is a website that people can report their fireball observations to https://ams.imo.net/members/imo/report_intro/. These reports can actually be used by astronomers to determine the trajectory and orbits that these object had and potential and locations where debris may have landed. Pellarin said the reports are useful in doing real science.