\u201cThis fireball is most likely a \u2018rock\u2019 left over from the formation of the solar system. It would have been orbiting the Sun for billions of years until 1.10am this morning when the Earth finally got in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greig explained that the \u201cfire\u201d seen across the sky is because of the rock passing through our atmosphere at high-speed causing compression and heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bright flash is when the rock becomes so hot it explodes. It appears to be an exceptionally large fireball. At this stage it looks like the fireball ended up off the west coast of Northland, probably west of Dargaville. We hope to have some more detailed info about its trajectory and orbit etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flash was widely noticed across the region with many sharing their experiences and videos captured on security footage online.<\/p>\n
One Kait\u0101ia resident, who asked not to be named, told the Northland Age he saw it on his camera footage after seeing the conversation about it online.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I didn\u2019t get to see it as I was inside at the time. I only had a look at my cameras cause a friend had seen the Facebook posts and asked if I had anything on my cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was fascinated by astronomical events and often looked for meteor showers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite interested in astrophotography, so this kind of stuff really excites me. I\u2019m usually up trying to get a cool shot of the moon or planets with my SLR. So getting a shot of a comet or meteor shower is one of my photography bucket list items.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the last meteor he caught on security camera was in January 2023 and he has been hunting ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one was much brighter. When I saw it on the camera I thought I had captured a lightning strike it was that bright. I hadn\u2019t seen one before 2023 so it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event, but now I know we could get more in the future I\u2019ll definitely be looking out more often.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaz Payne, from Kait\u0101ia, saw the flash on his security cameras and was both confused and curious about the sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was quite beautiful, but a little scary at the same time \u2026 I did see the flash but assumed it was a car turning around the end of the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosalina Puhi said she was confused by the bright flash.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking so many people were awake at the time. I woke up to go to the toilet and I thought someone turned the lights on,\u201d she quipped<\/p>\n
Fireballs Aotearoa collects reports and footage from the public to help researchers better understand the origins of objects that enter the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Residents who witness events are encouraged to report what they saw on its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis fireball is most likely a \u2018rock\u2019 left over from the formation of the solar system. It would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2196,28195,48745,5972,2245,3146,152644,51296,11551,296,26662,3242,25140,120,1362,111,139,2551,1067,69,24808,1523,1629,147,8861,392,131,210,115851,25809,810],"class_list":["post-268736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ancient","tag-atmosphere","tag-briefly","tag-day","tag-early","tag-earth","tag-exceptionally","tag-fireball","tag-hours","tag-into","tag-itself","tag-large","tag-lights","tag-likely","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-older","tag-over","tag-rock","tag-science","tag-sky","tag-space","tag-than","tag-through","tag-tore","tag-turning","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}