Aussies living hundreds of kilometres away from one another were greeted by the same mysterious sight on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Captured by dozens of stunned onlookers in NSW and Queensland, the object barrelling through the sky was characterised by a brilliant mix of blue and white light.<\/p>\n
Social media lit up as the object made its way across Aussie skies, with sightings as far northwest as Mount Isa and as far to the south as Tumut, just west of Canberra.<\/p>\n
A pair of women based in Queensland\u2019s Gympie region documented their sighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m seeing is a white head, and it\u2019s pushing through and it\u2019s got this tail and then coming off it is this veil of blue light and white mist behind it,\u201d one of them says as the other films.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just freaking awesome \u2026 what the hell was that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The object was a rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China about 5.20pm Australian time on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
About 20 minutes later, the rocket became visible over Queensland, according to University of Southern Queensland astrophysicist Jonti Horner.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the ABC, Professor Horner said the reason the rocket was so clearly visible was because its height allowed it to be lit by the sun even though people on the ground were experiencing darkness of the early evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got up to orbital altitude and it released some gas,\u201d Professor Horner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis cloud of gas was illuminated by the sun. Even though it was dark at ground level, this was high enough to be in sunlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so you\u2019ve got this cloud of gas highlighted moving across the sky as this rocket launch passed overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkish state media company Anadol Ajansi said the rocket had been carrying a pair of satellites named Spacesail DTC01 and China Mobile 02, which were successfully sent into orbit.<\/p>\n
The rocket, named Zhuque-2E Y6, is part of a series of rockets \u201cdeveloped for commercial satellite missions\u201d, according to Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n