Doug Anderson has a hard time believing that a piece of meteorite, which travelled throughout space and exploded over Kootenay Lake in September, somehow landed in his backyard.

Anderson and his wife Beverly own 20 acres of land near Crawford Bay. Just like hundreds of other observers from across Western Canada and the United States, the pair witnessed the fireball flash across the sky and explode on the evening of Sept. 4.

91裸聊视频淚t was unbelievable how close that was to us,91裸聊视频� said Anderson. 91裸聊视频淚t lit up the house for about five seconds, maybe even longer. Then I went upstairs to our deck and the sonic boom was bellowing down the lake. It was quite a phenomenon. We had no idea really what it was.91裸聊视频�

Nor did they have any idea a fragment of that meteorite would plummet into their land.

A piece smaller than a nickel was found Oct. 29 on the Anderson91裸聊视频檚 property by a team of researchers from the University of Calgary. Anderson had previously been contacted by Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist at the university, who asked permission to take a look.

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91裸聊视频淚 said, 91裸聊视频榃hy us? Out of all the millions of acres around here, why are you keen on our property to start with?91裸聊视频� [Hildebrand] said they have various methods of tracking the fireball,91裸聊视频� said Anderson.

Those methods were detailed in a statement released Nov. 9. Hildebrand91裸聊视频檚 team said an asteroid weighing one to five tonnes and a metre wide turned into a fireball when it hit the atmosphere near Priest Lake, Idaho.

According to the statement, the fireball then travelled across the U.S.-Canada border, passing Creston before exploding near Crawford Bay.

To find fragments of the meteorite, researchers examined four videos submitted from the public and used footage from a dedicated all-sky camera at Cranbrook91裸聊视频檚 College of the Rockies to triangulate its likely landing spot. That ended up being an area of 20 kilometres east of Crawford Bay and northwest across Bluebell Mountain to the north shore of Riondel.

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The first piece found was on Anderson91裸聊视频檚 land, but he said Hildebrand91裸聊视频檚 team discovered fragments on several other nearby properties as well.

One of those properties belongs to Roswitha Strom. She91裸聊视频檚 lived on her 40-acre lot for over three decades, and only heard about the fireball through the news after sleeping through it.

91裸聊视频淚 didn91裸聊视频檛 think they91裸聊视频檇 find anything, but it91裸聊视频檚 hard to tell,91裸聊视频� said Strom. 91裸聊视频淚f that thing was as close as going over the peninsula out here then there91裸聊视频檚 a good chance that it did spew some off the side. I really didn91裸聊视频檛 think that they91裸聊视频檇 find anything, but they did.91裸聊视频�

Strom said three pieces were found by the team, who used a tractor to scour her land.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 like ploughing, except you91裸聊视频檝e got these bars of magnets instead of the plough,91裸聊视频� she said.

Nine fragments of the Crawford Bay meteorite, which is a type of rock called chondrite, have been found so far by Hildebrand and his assistants Fabio Ciceri and Lincoln Hanton.

Hildebrand, who has been searching for meteorites since 1994, told the Star one might land in Canada once every five years. The fragments can show everything from what91裸聊视频檚 occurring in an asteroid field to how elements are made in what he calls stellar environments.

91裸聊视频淭hey are irreplaceable bits of data about the origin of our solar system,91裸聊视频� he said.

Hildebrand said he plans on returning to Crawford Bay to continue the hunt for more fragments.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 not just a rock to put on your shelf,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淭hey bring all kinds of information for us.91裸聊视频�

tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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