A Meteor Streaked Across the Australian Night Sky in an 'Exciting' Cosmic Event
Victorians were treated to a rare spectacle on Sunday night when a meteor streaked across the sky, lighting up towns from Bendigo to Ballarat and even Melbourne’s western suburbs.
The fireball appeared around 8 p.m., captured on dash cam and CCTV footage across the state. Some residents reported feeling the ground shake, adding to the drama of the sighting.
The timing came just before the expected peak of the annual Perseids meteor shower, but astronomers say the two events are unrelated.
“This would be what’s called a ‘sporadic meteor’, which refers to all meteors we see with a non-specific origin,” Perry Vlahos told The Age. “The reason it’s not a Perseid is because the ‘radiant’ – the point the meteors appear to radiate out from – never rises above the horizon for us at the latitude of Victoria.”
While the event may have been a one-off, scientists say it could hold more than just visual appeal. Michael Brown from Monash University said reports of fragments falling to the ground could make the incident particularly exciting.
“That is unusual and actually quite exciting, as if those reports are accurate, probably what they were hearing was a sonic boom from the meteor,” Brown told The Age. “To be able to hear the sonic boom loudly from the ground suggests that quite a big chunk of the meteor was pretty close to the ground. And that possibly means there’s chunks of the meteorite actually made it down to the ground and optimistically, might be found.”
The possibility of meteorite fragments now has scientists and skywatchers hoping for a follow-up discovery on the ground, one that could add a tangible piece of space rock to the memory of Sunday night’s spectacular show.
