Sky over Lake Erie lights up with fireball as Orionid meteor shower peaks

A meteor lit up our region's sky last night – with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.

Western University astronomers say that it could have been seen across much of southwestern Ontario as well as Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Western University Astronomer Peter Brown said that their analysis indicates that there wasn’t any danger to people on the ground. “We’re pretty sure that things ended up in the lake – even if it was over land, this was a pretty small object.”

So why the light show? Brown said that there’s a logical explanation, “It was really visible because it occurred when the sun was still not too far below the horizon, so the actual fireball was lit by the sun, and that helped visibility and it entered at a pretty shallow angle.”

The spectacular display coincides with earth passing the stream of Comet 1P, better known as Halley’s Comet. While earth trails through Halley’s stream, small pieces of the comet regularly burn up in the upper atmosphere.

Because visually the meteors appear to come from the direction of the constellation Orion, this is called the Orionid meteor shower – taking place this year from October 2, to November 1, with its peak occurring last night (October 21-22).

Orionids are known to produce fireballs due to the high speed at which debris enters the atmosphere.

Halley’s comet isn’t expected to return to the solar system until 2061.