Meteor Over Melbourne?

Anyone in Melbourne catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a huge meteor last night? First it was the night sky that lit up, soon followed by social media when an unusual object was seen blazing from south to north at around 10pm. Apparently it lasted about 30 seconds, and what an amazing spectacle it must have been to witness in person. The fireball was so large and lasted so long that witnesses first thought perhaps and aircraft was on fire. It was later confirmed by the Sydney Observatory to be debree. It was most likely a bit of Russian space junk re-entering the atmosphere over Australia. Typical meteors usually burn up in a matter of seconds, but this one lasted much longer, indicating that it was probably something manmade. Yay humans!

Take A Look For Yourself

“@TiffanyDay:saw the meteor from @sydneyobs last night, 9:45pm! Here's a much better video http://t.co/bDYwmDPqIp”@702sydney @ABC_News24

— Sydney Observatory (@sydneyobs) July 10, 2014

Meanwhile in Australia… #Meteor spotted over @Melbourne and across the country. Here's the view from @najube pic.twitter.com/wT8FQhWSPT

— Australia (@Australia) July 10, 2014

This was apparently a small flash in the pan compared to what residents of Townsville in north Queensland witnessed when looking out their windows back in May. The huge fireball apparently had a bright blue an black tail as it fell from the sky to earth crashing in a noiseless explosion some distance away. Apparently the colours are an indication of the contents of the burning material. Copper sulfate and lead are two elements that burn blue, and scientists believe this object was also space junk that was just trying to make its way home. Despite looking very close, it’s more likely that the object eventually made landfall quite a long distance away. Astronomers said that while the majority of the meteorite would have been burned up in its entry through Earth’s atmosphere, any part that fell would have been distant to Townsville watchers.

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