‘Fireball’ seen up and down east coast likely a meteor, astrophysicist says

Hundreds of Aussies were left questioning what they’d seen in the sky after a bright “fireball” was spotted in the early morning sky.

A celestial body has lit up skies along Australia’s east coast on Thursday morning, leaving early risers questioning what the bright streak could possibly be.

People from Toowoomba to Newcastle to Sydney saw the bluish-green tail illuminate the sky before 6am.

While there is a comet on a million-year orbit of the sun which was forecast to be seen about this time, one expert said the bluish tinge indicated the bright object was a meteorite.

One man called Ben Fordham’s radio show 2GB to report seeing a shooting star as calls poured in from people in New South Wales and Queensland.

The meteor seen over Sydney on Thursday morning. Picture: Channel 7

“It looked like a meteorite or a fireball or something,” one man said.

Australian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker called in to add some expertise to the conversation.

“It definitely sounds like a meteor based on what everyone’s seeing,” he told Mr Fordham.

He explained that meteors move across the sky very quickly, from 50,000 to 100,000 km/h.

But the biggest clue that the bright light was a meteor was the green tinge which is to its iron-nickel composition burning as the high speeds create friction with the atmosphere.

The blue-green hue indicates a meteorite. Picture: Channel 7

“It’s unlikely fragments fell on the ground,” Dr Tucker said.

“It clearly covered a lot of distance in a short amount of time. So definitely a broken chunk of an asteroid that randomly hit the Earth’s atmosphere.

“A lot of them do end up in the ocean. But there’s been a few in the past couple of years that because of reports like we’ve just been hearing, and videos and footage that people have, we can triangulate their location.”

In May 2023, this meteor landed in Queensland. Picture: Australian Meteor Reports

“There was a big one that happened over Milton in Queensland last year where this exact thing happened.”

The Draconid meteor shower peaked on October 8, where a few meteors per hour were forecast, but mainly visible in the northern hemisphere.

There are two comets which may be visible this month.

Comet A3 will be visible low in the west after sunset beginning around October 14 and Comet S1 will be visible in late October to early November, low in the east before sunrise.

Originally published as ‘Fireball’ seen up and down east coast likely a meteor, astrophysicist says