Â鶹ӰÊÓ

Researchers say the fireball that blazed across the Prairie sky Thursday evening was most likely a meteor, but expert's opinions about where - and if - the galactic object hit the Earth are divided.

Hundreds of residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported seeing the bright light, which was also captured on security cameras.

The stunning images show the sky light up as a bright point of light blazes into view, then disappears over the horizon.

Paul Delaney, an astronomer from York University, said the object was a meteor that was "cruising through the upper atmosphere, giving us a wonderful lightshow, telling us of course that you should always be outside looking up."

He said the meteor may have disintegrated prior to reaching the ground. But if it is found, it could offer a fascinating look into the history of the solar system.

"It's a wonderful laboratory," he told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet.

"This is a piece of our past. You're talking about an object that potentially is four-and-a-half billion years old, telling us all about the local environment in our solar system as the solar system was forming.

Even more fascinating, he said, is if the meteor turns out to be a piece of another planet, such as Mars.

"Meteors get blasted off the surfaces of old planets in our solar system, terrestrial planets, and they come to Earth," he said.

Randy Atwood, a space educator, told CTV's Canada AM the meteor was probably no bigger than a grapefruit, and may have broken into small pieces before hitting the ground, or it may have burned up entirely before touching down.

He agreed there may not be much of it left, saying it was travelling at incredible speeds when it was spotted.

"There's a very good chance it was what we call a bolide, which is a meteorite crossing the sky at extremely quick velocity -- very, very fast -- and as it hits the atmosphere at about 400,000 feet, travelling at about 60 kilometres per second, this is the incredible light show that it creates," said Atwood.

Still, not all experts agree.

Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist from the University of Calgary, said the meteorite likely smashed into the ground near Macklin, Sask., which is about 100 kilometres south of the Alberta border town of Lloydminster.

In fact, Hildebrand is so sure of his hypothesis that he plans to spend his weekend searching for rock remnants around in the area.

"Right now, the important thing is not searching because we don't know which field to search in. It's a big world," Hildebrand told The Canadian Press. "What's important now is finding proximal eyewitnesses, so you know where meteorites might have fallen."

Astronomers and universities across Western Canada have cameras recording activity in the sky, Atwood said. If the meteor was captured by more than one of the cameras, it may be possible over the next couple of days to triangulate exactly where it touched down -- if it did.

CTV's Mike Ciona, a Saskatoon reporter who saw the sky light up on his way home from work, said it appeared to be positioned to the west and north of the city.

"It looked like a lighting bolt, the most intense lighting bolt you've ever seen, and maybe the size of three," Ciona told Canada AM.

Phone lines at CTV began to light up just minutes after the event, with residents seeking more information on what happened.

CTV Saskatoon fielded roughly 60 calls, Ciona said.

"It seemed the most intense areas where it was being reported was in the west-central part of Saskatchewan and the east-central part of Alberta, with the most intense reports coming in from Melfort, Saskatchewan and Lloydminster...and right at Red Pheasant First Nation," Ciona said.

MyNews user Dan Charrois, who lives about 50 kilometres north of Edmonton, said security cameras set up at his home managed to capture some grainy footage showing a big flare in the night sky.

"It happened so fast I don't think anyone would have had the reaction time to get it," he told CTV.ca, adding that his computer software business has written programs that track meteors.

Though Charrois didn't see the fireball himself, he decided to check the security tapes after his friends and neighbours called him to find out where the light may have came from.

"I only had to rewind a couple of minutes and it was there," he said, noting the security time stamped the flash at 5:26 p.m. local time.

"You kind of see a flash, which lasts about two seconds or so," he said.