FarNEWS :.

METEORITE MAY BE CANADIAN ICE HOLE SUSPECT

update Jan 21.08
SPRUCE GROVE, Alta.—The mystery of what Spruce Grove residents believe was a meteorite began to unravel yesterday after an eyewitness came forward to say he’d seen a fireball shoot down from the sky.

“I first thought it was a shooting star, but it wasn’t burning out,” said Eric Whyte, who was driving southbound on Highway 2 between St. Albert and Morinville around 10 p.m. on Thursday.

“It was a big ball of fire, bright orangey in colour, and there was a big tail behind it.”

Astronomer Martin Beech said the sighting of a fireball is crucial in determining whether it was a meteorite. But he couldn’t say for sure what dropped into the frozen pond at The Links at Spruce Grove, just west of Edmonton.

Derrick Zienowicz was the first one to see the strange octopus-shaped hole in the frozen golf-course pond Saturday morning.

He immediately told his neighbours, Tina Danyluk and James Shankowski, whose house is closest to the strange marks.

They initially believed the strange marks were made late Friday night or early Saturday.

But both Shankowski and Zienowicz said it’s possible the marks have been there since Thursday night because none of them looked out their back windows Friday.

Around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Zienowicz said he felt his house shake while he was standing in the kitchen.

“It’s kinda weird. For about 10 seconds, the house shook. I said, ‘What the heck was that?’”

He now suspects it was associated with the fireball and the strange marks.

A bright burning ball with an associated sonic boom normally indicates a falling meteor, said Beech, who teaches astronomy at Campion College in the University of Regina.

(Original headline: Meteorite believed cause of giant hole )

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Spruce Grove residents woke up yesterday to a mysterious octopus-shaped hole in a frozen golf-course pond.

A hole about 1.5 metres in diameter was visible yesterday on the pond at The Links at Spruce Grove, along with at least 20 splash marks - the longest about six metres.

"It wasn't there (Friday)," said neighbour Tina Danyluk, whose house backs onto the pond.

She suspects it might have been a meteorite.

Whatever it was, it had to have followed a high trajectory based on "how the splash spread," Danyluk said.

Astronomer Martin Beech said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of a falling meteorite, but the marks perplexed him.

To punch through ice nearly half a metre thick, the meteor would have to be huge and would look like a bright burning ball with an associated sonic boom, said Beech, who teaches astronomy at Campion College at the University of Regina.

"Usually, it's quite a distinctive rumbling sound and people tend to notice that sound," Beech told Sun Media from Regina.

But no one reported seeing or hearing anything unusual.

"The whole pond was covered in snow (on Friday) until this morning when we saw the strange marks in the pond," said Danyluk.

Beech said he wasn't aware of any reports of fireballs in the area.

He also noted that such an object wouldn't normally melt thick ice.

"If it wasn't a meteorite, what the heck was it?" asked the baffled astronomer.

Danyluk's neighbour, Aaron Soos, said the marks were puzzling and the phenomenon had residents talking all day.

"If the pond was not frozen, we wouldn't even see those marks."

(Original headline: Visitor from space? )

.:Story originally published by:.
The Edmonton Sun via CNEWS / AB | Renato Gandia - Jan 20.08

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