Anyone who may have seen a large fireball in the sky early this morning was treated to rare sighting in Southern Ontario.

A fireball first spotted near Tobermory, flew eastwards at about 24 kilometres per second before disappearing somewhere near Algonquin park.

Marcel Marquardt was on his way to work in Guelph when his dash cam picked up the flash in the sky.

“It was very bright then it started breaking up a little bit it had a little bit of a tail,” says Marquardt.

The Observatory Coordinator at the University of Waterloo, Victor Arora, says these sightings are extremely rare and not the same thing as a shooting star.

“The difference is in the brightness, a typical meteor will not be as bright as a fireball. A fireball is usually defined as something that’s brighter than anything else up in the sky say for the sun or the full moon.”

Fireballs, according to Arora, are rare with only about six occurrences planet wide.

“You have to be first of all awake at night you have to be looking in the right direction and the weather has to be right there can’t be too many clouds so actually sighting a fireball might be something that only happens once in your lifetime.”

The flash of light only lasts about three or four seconds.

What’s unique about the fireball is that it’s not much larger than a golf ball or a walnut according to sky watchers.  

“It’s easy to see cuz it’s moving at such a fast rate that it’s making the gases in the atmosphere excited and they glow and shine very brightly,” says Arora.
 

With reporting from Marc Venema