\u201cIt looked like a shooting star but after the flash it was still visible for about five seconds,\u201d the person wrote – begging others to confirm the sighting as the rest of their household was questioning their sanity.<\/p>\n
Another person was out fishing when they saw an apparent meteor, saying they were \u201cmesmerised\u201d by its glowing trail. it left behind.<\/p>\n
Others reported a \u201cflash in the sky then a trail towards Karioitahi Beach\u201d, on Auckland\u2019s southwest coast, a \u201cbright green\u201d light in the sky, and a \u201cbeautiful\u201d shooting star darting low in the sky before burning out.<\/p>\n
Reports came from Taup\u014d, Wellington and Feilding, while one Masterton resident reported \u201chuge loud booming and then a crackling like firecrackers\u201d, saying they had been \u201ca [teensy] bit scared\u201d by the end.<\/p>\n
Newstalk ZB\u2019s Marcus Lush Nights also received a flurry of reports, with one person spotting the meteor while bringing in the cows. Another said they had seen a meteor north of Stratford, saying it \u201cexploded very quickly – all over in about three seconds\u201d.<\/p>\n
Commenters on Weatherwatch\u2019s website reported seeing one or more meteorite flashes from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, including one travelling east to west over Auckland and another reporting a \u201cfireball in Waiwera\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaw a large meteorite high in the sky looking west down Khyber Pass in Auckland city,\u201d another wrote. \u201cAmazing to see such a bright shooting star with all the city lights!\u201d<\/p>\n
After Tuesday\u2019s meteor sightings, Te Whatu Stardome head of education Kaitlyn Martin told the Herald a fireball is larger than a typical meteor, causing bright flashes where a typical meteor would just streak across the sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re actually seeing is that rock breaking into small pieces.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit like the difference between burning a log or burning little chips of kindling or wood shavings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rock breaking means more surface area, causing it to burn faster, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it very quickly goes from just looking like a normal meteor to having that bright bang, that bright light in the sky that you see in the video.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt looked like a shooting star but after the flash it was still visible for about five seconds,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2840,2082,305,2514,52861,130,111,139,2551,529,69,1560,15267,147,8466,28652,9877,270213,392,8841,2963],"class_list":["post-550411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-across","tag-for","tag-have","tag-island","tag-meteor","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-report","tag-reported","tag-science","tag-second","tag-sightings","tag-skies","tag-skygazers","tag-space","tag-suspected","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550411","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=550411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}