Report: Canadian asteroid weighed 10 tons

CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The asteroid that lit up western Canadian skies and startled thousands of people last week weighed about 10 tons, a University of Calgary researcher said.

In a news release, Alan Hildebrand, coordinator of the university's Canadian Fireball Reporting Center, said the asteroid that was seen in Alberta and Saskatchewan last Thursday was likely about the size of an office desk, CTV News reported.

Hildebrand said after analyzing scores of amateur videos and pictures, he determined the asteroid was traveling at a relatively slow 33,000 mph when it streaked across the early evening sky. The report said most rocks entering Earth's atmosphere travel 30 percent faster than that and burn up entirely before they reach the ground.

Hildebrand said he has mapped out a region in western Saskatchewan where he believes fragments could be found, based on witness accounts and video evidence.

"Many witnesses reported seeing a cluster of red fragments continuing downward in the sky after the fireball exploded," he said. "These represent the rocks slowing down that will eventually fall to the ground as meteorites."

He said public response to the event was "the largest that we have ever had in Canada," the report said.