A meteor streaked across the night sky in Victoria, Australia on Sunday, producing a bright fireball and a loud sonic boom that shook houses. Residents in Ballarat and Bendigo reported seeing the space rock at around 7:30pm local time and hearing a loud boom about a minute later.
Social media footage captured the meteor burning brightly. One resident in Bendigo wrote on Facebook, 'Bendigo just got hit by a meteor! Felt all over Bendigo! Shook our house. BOOM.' The International Meteor Organisation confirmed the fireball was observed and video recorded over Victoria at 9:34 UT.
Australia's earthquake monitoring agency, Geoscience Australia, said it received multiple reports of tremors but ruled out any seismic event. Associate Professor Michael Brown from Monash University noted that the audible sonic boom suggested a large chunk of the meteor was close to the ground, possibly resulting in fragments landing.
Experts dismissed the possibility of the fireball being space junk or part of the Perseid meteor shower, as the radiant point never rises above Victoria's latitude. The Ballarat municipality observatory indicated a potential fall site northeast of Maryborough, with a final visual height of 9 km, suggesting a meteorite fall.
