Suspected meteorite hits close to home
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2012 (4773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A woman living near Riding Mountain believes she found pieces of a meteor close to her home.
On Wednesday, she found two fragments with surfaces like “old elephant skin” — one the size of a football and the other larger, weighing in at approximately 55 pounds (about 25 kg).
In the middle of the night, Nicole Nixon’s house became so bright she could barely open her eyes. Then there was a loud bang and she thought something hit the house.
“It was a terrifying experience. At first I thought it was a bomb,” Nixon said.
In the morning, Nixon went outside her home to find her horses cut up, likely from coming into contact with barbed wire after being spooked.
Then while walking through her property looking for the cause of the ruckus, she found what she believes to be two pieces of a meteor laying on shale rock.
There wasn’t a crater around where Nixon found the “mystery rock,” but the area is covered with dense bush.
Nixon’s property is located approximately 25 kilometres north of Neepawa on the south east corner of Riding Mountain National Park.
“I don’t know 100 per cent what it is, but because of the sonic boom and the light I think it’s probably a meteor,” Nixon said.
Nixon sent pictures to professor Jeff Young, from the University of Manitoba, but he was unable to verify that it was a meteor by only seeing the photo. Nixon does intend to get the rock tested to see if it really is a meteorite.
Over the weekend, bits of rock from the tail of a comet plunged through our atmosphere at the rate of up to 80 bits each hour during the annual Perseids meteor shower — one of the most spectacular meteor showers the Earth receives.
The Sun pursued comments from scientists at the University of Manitoba. Calls were not returned by press time.
» rbooker@brandonsun.com