Hunt on for North Island Meteorite
November 21, 2022
PHOTO: Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
An enormous fireball seen over the North Island during the weekend has astronomers scrambling to find the meteorite.
Local meteor-tracking organisation Fireballs Aotearoa said the meteor was likely to have landed in Northland, and could be just the tenth meteorite kiwi scientists have found in the last 150 years.
On Saturday morning, witnesses across the upper-North Island spotted a green streak, followed by a bright orange light and a sonic boom. It lasted just 6 seconds, but left quite an impression.
A Northland farmer was the first person to report a sighting. “I turned around thinking it was a vehicle on the road behind me,” they wrote. “It’s by far the biggest event I’ve seen in the night sky, and I’ve spent a lot of hours following cows in the dark.”