Sudburians watch the skies; Falling debris catches residents' attention

Sudbury Star

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire were seen falling from the sky Monday.

The sightings have puzzled astronomers and local experts who've failed to come up with an explanation.

Some witnesses described the unidentified flying objects as being bright blue, green, red or yellow.

While most sightings were reported around 1:30 p.m. near Sudbury, Hagar, Highway 69 North and North Bay, Wayne Lachance spotted something in the sky earlier in the morning.

Lachance was driving home to Massey after a night shift at Vale Inco Ltd. when something caught his eye around 7:30 a.m.

"I thought it was a real bright star," he said. "It was getting brighter and coming down with sparks."

Lachance arrived home and looked outside his bedroom window to see "spirals of smoke" falling.

Science North fielded about a dozen calls from residents who saw the fiery objects around 1:30 p.m.

Howie Mende, a staff scientist with a background in physics who works at the science centre, said the bright balls of fire could possibly be aircraft, a meteor, meteorite or satellite debris.

The amateur astronomer didn't see anything in the sky Monday, but spoke to many residents who did.

"Everybody who saw it thought it was near them," Mende said.

"It could be that it was different objects or it could be the same object and your perception of the space between you and the object gets distorted because it's such a rare event."

One person thought the object burned up before it reached the Earth, while other witnesses said it hit the ground.

"One person even thought a piece hit near her home, literally a few houses away," said Mende.

If the object was a falling meteorite, Mende said it's not unusual for it to happen during daylight.

"In our solar system, we're basically just another sphere," he said. "There's a whole bunch of other activity happening out there."

After speaking to witnesses, Mende believes the objects were anywhere from the size of a marble to a basketball.

"Can we even detect something that small with any accuracy?" If it's any bigger than that, there's a better chance of it hitting the Earth and us hearing or feeling an impact."

Last week, researchers at the University of Western Ontario reported that a blazing meteor captured on video may have fallen to Earth along the shore of Georgian Bay.

On March 5 at 10:59 p.m., the university's Physics and Astronomy Department's network of all-sky cameras - stationed across southern Ontario - picked up images of a large fireball streaking across the sky.