Stargazers treated to skyshow as space junk seen across the country

Video footage was splashed across social media Friday night from across the Eastern Australian seaboard of what many assumed was a meteor. Think again.

IF YOU think you spotted something flying over Queensland Friday night, you weren’t mistaken!

However, the seemingly extra-terrestrial object was more terrestrial than you think.

The debris spotted across eastern Australia was the third stage debris of a Russian Soyuz Rocket which was launching a missile detection satellite for the Kremlin.

The rocket originally launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome just before 6pm Australian Eastern Standard time.

EPIC!! Check out this incredible vision captured by Mel Aldridge not long ago at Cashmore near Portland! We're getting plenty of reports. @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/1KuldCy6OJ

— Vic Storm Chasers (@VicStormChasers) May 22, 2020

Holy shit ! this just went passed west to south sighted just out of Daylesford vic @VicStormChasers pic.twitter.com/nMfcjzneMT

— Lily Langham (@lumpylangham) May 22, 2020

Just saw this meteor over Creswick towards Ballarat @WINNews_Bal @ballaratcourier @3AW693 pic.twitter.com/52gtSL33CD

— Tom Toose (@ttoose) May 22, 2020

#meteor most amazing meteor just went across the sky at Nulla Vale pic.twitter.com/ALqjepRl3C

— James (@centralvicjames) May 22, 2020

I literarly saw the biggest meteor in my life pic.twitter.com/sHFp3Ztw3A

— Nocturnal Astro (@NocturnalAstro) May 22, 2020

Not sure what it was but wow pic.twitter.com/5aoitUnMwc

— Paul Campbell 📹🎤 (@vege07) May 22, 2020

The debris was estimated to have landed along a trajectory just south of Tasmania. Video footage was uploaded to social media from all across the Eastern Australian seaboard, with the epic show lasting about 20 seconds.

Jonti Hunter, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland, told the ABC the object was identifiable as space junk because of its slow speed.

“The slow speed, about 6 kilometres per second, is a very telltale sign that it is space junk,” he said.

While luckily this wasn’t the second coming of Skylab, it still gave late night stargazers a spectacle.