Reports indicate the sky lit up a bright green as what appeared to be a meteor struck the earth Wednesday night in Southern Manitoba.

Scott Young, the manager of the Manitoba Museum's Planetarium and Science Gallery, says the reports span from Winnipeg, through southern Manitoba, as far south as Minnesota and Minneapolis and then spreading up into northwestern Ontario. Young notes from reports it sounds like this was the larger cousin of a typical meteor and is more generally known as a bolide or fireball.

"It's basically a rock from outer space, about the size of a basketball, that comes into the atmosphere and burns up due to the friction. It creates a very, very bright flash of light all the way down to the ground."

Dorinda Penner from Steinbach witnessed the meteor but notes didn't feel any sensation when the rock hit the ground. Penner says they were driving on Highway 1, turning south onto Highway 12 when they saw a streak of light in the sky to the southeast of Ste. Anne.

"The whole sky turned a vibrant green, kind of like lightning in summer and then it just burned off and it was a big wow, less than four seconds I'd say. There was no time to pick up a phone and take a picture."

Penner says some of the passengers in her vehicle went on social media immediately and saw posts of people who witnessed a similar sight near St. Malo.

She notes this is the first time she has ever witnessed such a sight. Young says it's uncommon for any one person to see a meteor, and an individual may see two or three if they're lucky.

Vi Hancock from Ste. Genevieve is one of those lucky people. Hancock says she has seen three meteors hit the earth in her lifetime, including the one witnessed Wednesday night. She notes she was on her way to Ste. Anne, driving south on Highway 12 after 9:00 p.m. when she saw a bright light to the east.

"I was driving along and all of a sudden there was a very bright light, very bright to the point where I couldn't see for a second on the road. The thought crossed my mind, who is putting such high beams on that I can't even see. No sooner did I think that then, well, I never saw a vehicle. When that thought flashed I guess the meteor moved enough that I could see it and I saw the whole thing, it was coming down at an angle and it had a very long white tail, almost like little diamonds, almost like a disco ball. It was slow and steady but quick. Then I saw it go boom and that was it."

Hancock says it felt as if the meteor was so close she was riding shotgun with it and could have hit it with a baseball. She adds the meteor was so bright her left eye is still bothering her this morning.

As for the other two meteors, "five years ago I was going to university, I was coming home from university and I was turning from Highway 1 onto PR 501 and, again, it was huge and slow and steady. I saw it land beside a farmhouse. A couple years later, I was coming home around 9/9:30 like yesterday (Wednesday), I was coming home from work and I was driving down Pioneer which is a road a mile from my house. I saw it again, slow and steady, but a little faster than the one I saw yesterday. It landed, or it appeared like it was landing behind our bushes in front of our house, which is about half a mile away."

As for Wednesday's meteor, Young explains it sounds like there was one big meteor which fragmented into pieces, which accounts for the varied sightings, adding this event happened during an annual meteor shower.

"This was interesting because this was happening during an annual meteor shower called the Quadrantids meteor shower. That's a fairly significant meteor shower, but it only lasts 16 hours. We're not sure if this is related to that shower or if it's a separate event that just happened to come in on the same day."

Young adds there are two or three of these types of meteors which hit the earth each day, however, the ones that are observed and reported are the ones with the highest hope of being tracked do