Bright flashing light shoots through sky over Victoria
A meteor-like flash has lit up the sky over parts of Victoria and the spectacle was so bright it prompted calls to emergency services, who feared it was a plane crashing. See what experts believe caused the flash.
VIC News
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A flash of light that shot across the sky over Victoria and sparked calls to emergency services was caused by a Russian rocket burning through the atmosphere.
Dramatic videos emerged on Friday night of what appeared to be a meteor-like flash just after 6pm.
Astronomy experts said it was not a meteor but space junk burning up.
Astrophysicist and cosmologist Brad Tucker said it was the third stage of a Russian rocket launch re-entering the atmosphere that created some “strange lights”.
Dr Tucker from the Australian National University said it was visible in parts of NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania.
Just saw this meteor over Creswick towards Ballarat @WINNews_Bal @ballaratcourier @3AW693 pic.twitter.com/52gtSL33CD
— Tom Toose (@ttoose) May 22, 2020
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
Ambulance Victoria said they received multiple calls in Rushworth and Creswick from people reporting suspected plane crashes.
A spokeswoman said upon investigation there were no incidents and paramedics were not required.
Paul Hancock from Curtin University said an event as large as Friday night’s light show only occurred every few years.
Dr Curtin leads a team of researchers that detect and monitor space debris above Australia and said most space debris were little objects that quickly flash through the sky as they enter the earth’s atmosphere.
“You might see a tiny streak in the night, or most of the time people don’t really see it or it comes down during the daytime. It’s only when you get really big things like rocket bodies that you’ll see quite a bright event,” he said.
He said the rocket visible on Friday night was “one of the more spectacular ones” caused by fragments of the rocket body coming apart as it entered the atmosphere.
It’s thought the rocket had been used to launch a Russian satellite.
Footage of the light show was shared on Twitter, including from Tom Toose, who wrote: “Just saw this meteor over Creswick towards Ballarat”.
A comment underneath the video said: “We just saw it while driving through Ballarat! It was amazing!”
Another person wrote that they had seen it light up the sky at Nulla Vale: “We wondered if it was a plane in the late sun, stopped filming a moment before it broke up.”
These lights flying through the air were seen from my family’s farm tonight north of Ballarat. Meteorite or space junk? Looks pretty cool whatever it is 😳👾👽 @theheraldsun @ballaratcourier #ballarat #smeaton pic.twitter.com/RqbB37VpIN
— Sophie Elsworth (@sophieelsworth) May 22, 2020
Smeaton engineer Will Elsworth, 45, said the flashing lights were amazing to watch fly through the sky.
“It appeared like a meteorite and as it broke up in to pieces it lit the night sky up over Smeaton,” he said.
Mr Elsworth saw the lights from his farm at Smeaton which is located about 30km north of Ballarat.
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