Fireball streaks across sky above Calgary

A spectacular fireball was captured on video in the Thursday night sky by many Calgarians.

It’s the talk of the internet and in many Calgary households after a fireball was seen streaking across the sky Thursday evening.

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Joseph Lenny captured the seemingly slow-moving stream of light over the community of Pineridge in northeast Calgary on his cell phone at 7:58 p.m.

The video shows about half a dozen orange-yellow lights through the night sky.

Others also shared footage of the fireball on social media, with some saying the flying objects were travelling from west to east.

Speaking to CTV News on Friday, astronomer Alan Dyer says though it’s not yet known what the fireball was, he believes it was “almost certainly” a satellite or piece of space debris like a spent booster rocket.

“It was going west to east as most satellites do and was travelling much slower than a natural meteor, which last only two or three seconds at best,” he said.

“With hundreds if not thousands of satellites being launched every year, most by SpaceX, many more will be coming back down with increasing frequency. Most burn up completely – which is what the videos show.”

Thursday’s sighting follows another fireball sighting in southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington on Wednesday, which was recorded by the American Meteor Society.

There was also a fireball sighting over Calgary last month, when a flash of light illuminated the sky from Saskatchewan to British Columbia just before dawn on Feb. 10.