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Meteor lights up NZ sky

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Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.

If you thought you were experiencing a Close Encounters moment this morning, the bright light in the sky was not aliens - it was a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Residents of cities as far apart as Rotorua and Christchurch saw the display.

Allan Gilmore from the Mount John observatory at Tekapo says the object was probably a rock travelling at about 30km/s.

The entry ended in what is known as a terminal fireball.

RadioLIVE
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01 Sep 2009 11:13p.m.

Yvonne Walker wrote:

I live by William Colenso College in Napier. Tonight (01/09/09) at 10.55pm I saw another meteor fly through the sky. I was sitting outside when I saw a large ball with a bright orange tail fly down through the eastern sky towards Cape Kidnappers. I'm guessing there must be a few meteor showers happening at the moment.

28 Aug 2009 11:27p.m.

Alan wrote:

Not sure if it was the same thing, but for the last two nights here in Toronto Canada there has been a flash in the sky and the power went out for a couple of seconds. This happened around 4 a.m. EST (0800 GMT)both Thursday and Friday.

28 Aug 2009 03:52p.m.

Jess wrote:

I saw it !!