The fireball, which streaked through the darkening skies over Alberta and Saskatchewan at about 5:30 p.m. Calgary time, likely weighed between 1 and 10 tons and shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. "It was somewhere between the size of a chair to the size of a desk," said Alan Hildebrand, a planetary scientist at the University of Calgary and a coordinator of a fireball reporting service.

"This one was pretty spectacular. For this year it will be one of the biggest that happens over Canada. ... Something like this radiates like a billion-watt bulb. It's a pretty bright light in the sky."

Hildebrand said the meteor may have broken into hundreds of smaller meteorites that likely landed in central Saskatchewan near that province's border with Alberta.

The fireball lit up the skies for about five seconds, he said.