Scientists in Ontario want to know who picked up a meteorite that crashed along Highway 61 in Thunder Bay last night.
A loud explosion shook homes around 11 and while police looked around, they didn’t find any evidence of anything unusual until this morning.
It doesn’t look like much, but this is a supposed meteor hit along Hwy 61 in #TBay #cbctb pic.twitter.com/aJJveKhmI7
— Jeff Walters (@JeffWaltersCBC) December 14, 2017
While there was some dirt, there was no meteorite; just a hole where it landed, according to the CBC.
“This would be the first recorded meteorite fall in northern Ontario, because this is a terrible place to look for meteorites,” said geology professor Stephen Kissin at Lakehead University.
“In this business, we talk about finds, where something’s been sitting out there for a long time, or falls, which are a lot more interesting because, of course, they’re fresher,” he said. “And also if you’re looking at the whole picture … they give you an idea of the actual flux of what different kinds of meteorites are coming in.”
Kissin said the meteorite is likely not related to the Geminid meteor shower, which peaked last night.
“A meteor shower is actually the tail of a comet, and they don’t deliver, as far as anyone knows … anything to the Earth. So this appears to be a coincidence,” he said.