An example of what a bolide meteor may look like in the night sky. This meteor was photographed over Texas in September 2008. Image courtesy NASA.

A number of residents in the Southeast have reported seeing a bright green light in the southern sky Friday night, and they aren't the only Manitobans to have seen it. Manitoba Museum astronomer Scott Young has also received reports from Winnipeg and parts of southwestern Manitoba. He says the bright green fireball was spotted around 10 p.m.

"It was brighter than a regular meteor or falling star, moving faster than a satellite and slower than a plane," says Young. "A bunch of the reports indicate it was breaking up into pieces as it moved across the sky."

He says most reports have stated it was visible for three to five seconds, but notes it's difficult to judge length of time when a person sees something like this.

Despite the investigation being at a very early stage, young suspects the object may have been a bolide meteor which he describes as the bigger cousin of a typical falling star.

"Instead of a tiny little piece of dust this was probably a rock somewhere, based on the reports, between the size of a baseball and a minivan," says Young. "It was probably a rock from the outer portions of our solar system that was on a collision course with the Earth. That's great, because that's a much easier way to get these rocks from space rather than to actually have to build a spacecraft, and fly out there and pick one up."

Young says these objects a very valuable from a scientific point of view, and he is very excited one may have landed in our backyard. Where exactly in the backyard is the question? He stresses the key now is getting as many eyewitness reports as soon as possible in order to determine where the object may have landed so they can search for it.

"So we've got to coordinate all of these visual reports, triangulate them on a map, and do all the math to figure out where the pieces might come down and then go out there and literally start looking around on the ground."

Young is encouraging those who saw the fireball to make a report this weekend. You can do that a number of ways including posting your report to the Manitoba Museum's Facebook page, or via email at skyinfo@manitobamuseum.ca . The type of information Young is looking for includes where you were, what direction you were looking, and the time, as well as a description of what was seen.