Search on for Toronto-area meteorite bits

In a release, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the University of Western Ontario in London said analysis of a network of sky camera footage shows a slow-moving fireball swept eastward on March 15 at 8:37 p.m. near the small city of Newmarket.

The museum is scheduling a public workshop in Newmarket on what to look for in the fragments, which are likely to be small. The release said meteorites are often black on the outside from the heat of re-entry, and can be dull or shiny. They are not dangerous to handle and are almost always magnetic, the museum said.

"Although this is not the first time a meteorite has fallen in Ontario, we are very interested in recovering fragments from this fireball, which gives us small clues to the material in our solar system," said Dr. Kim Tait, associate curator of mineralogy at the museum.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.