Caught on camera: Meteor lights up the morning sky over Ottawa

Bright light over Barrhaven CTV News Ottawa viewer Earl Kauker shared dash cam video of a meteor over Barrhaven Wednesday morning.

OTTAWA — A bright object spotted streaking across the early morning sky over Barrhaven was a meteor.

Earl Kauker sent CTV News Ottawa dash cam video of an object in the sky around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.

"Just caught this meteorite in the Barrhaven area this morning. Meteorite can be seen on the left hand side of the video," said Kauker.

Western University's Department of Physics and Astronomy confirms to CTV News Ottawa it was "definitely" a meteor caught on camera.

"I am fairly confident this is a bright meteor related to the Leonid meteor shower which was peaking today," said Peter Brown, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science and professor at Western University.

"The afterglow left by the meteor is typical of fast Leonids."

According to NASA, the Leonids peak in mid-November each year. The Leonids are bright meteors, can be colourful and travel at speeds of 71 kilometres per second.

The American Meteor Society received dozens of reports of a fireball in the sky from Canada and the United States Wednesday morning.

One person in Michigan told the American Meteor Society the fireball was a, "glowing train that just disappeared." In Wisconsin, a witness said "smoke trail was visible until it hit the ground."

NASA says meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids.