Chris Herd, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, announced the findings from a team of researchers Tuesday in Edmonton. (CBC)

A meteorite that smashed into Alberta 1,100 years ago could lead to more scientific discoveries, researchers at the University of Alberta said Tuesday, days after a fireball streaked across the skies over Saskatchewan and Alberta.

A bowl-shaped crater, near Whitecourt, which was first brought to the attention of researchers in 2007, was uncovered using a computer program already in use by the forestry industry, leading researchers to suggest its use in looking for more undiscovered craters on the Earth's surface.

The program, known as LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, strips away existing trees and vegetation.

"It works the same sort of way as radar does, but using laser light shone from an aircraft flying over the area," said Chris Herd, an associate professor with the department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta.

"The potential now is to use this LiDAR method to find other craters elsewhere, especially in forested areas around the world," Herd said.

The research from Herd and five others at the University of Alberta was published Tuesday in the December issue of Geology.

People had known of the Whitecourt crater for years because it's in a good area for deer hunting, which attracted people to the area. Whitecourt is 180 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Herd said he was initially skeptical when he got the call about a crater possibly caused by a meteorite from a Whitecourt resident last year.

"More often than not, they are not meteorites and the chances of finding an impact crater is exceedingly slim," he said. "But ... we have actually found an impact crater with meteorites."

The crater is six metres deep and 36 metres in diameter, among the smallest known to man, Herd said, adding that craters are very hard to find. Only about 175 have been discovered on Earth.

The University of Alberta announcement comes on the same day as a researcher at the University of Calgary announced the fireball that lit up the sky over Alberta and Saskatchewan Thursday was a fragment of an asteroid.

The fragment weighed approximately 10 tonnes when it first entered the Earth's atmosphere, Alan Hildebrand, co-ordinator of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre, and a professor at the University of Calgary, said Tuesday.

The fireball first appeared approximately 80 kilometres above and just east of Lloydminster, a city on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, according to Hildebrand, and travelled southeast toward the valley of the Battle River.

The trajectory has led Hildebrand to believe a region in western Saskatchewan is the most likely spot to find desk-sized pieces of space rock.