Meteor fireball blazing in the night sky: ‘Really unbelievable’

Strange but true

by Andrew Court

May 22, 2023 | 11:01 a.m

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A search is underway for pieces of a meteorite that crashed near Cairns, Australia, on Saturday night.

The meteor fireball, which gave off a neon green color as it hurtled through the atmosphere, lit up the sky upon impact and startled the citizens.

The amazing astronomical event was captured by a surveillance camera at Cairns Airport, and the footage has since gone viral.

The airport wrote: “We saw very nice activity across our skies last night.” Facebook Under the breathtaking clip.

The video has been liked by 45,000 space fans who belong to the Facebook group Australian Meteorite Reports. Some of them are now reportedly searching for the remains of the meteorite.

It is believed that the rock landed somewhere near the small town of Croydon, about 250 miles from Cairns.

Trevor Pickering, the mayor of Croydon shire, said, “I’ve heard people might come looking for her.” ABC Australia. “There must be bits of it somewhere.”

“Finding the site is going to be tough, but I’d actually like to put down a helicopter and do some flying,” he added.

Professor Paulo de Souza of Griffith University told ABC he believed it was a common metallic meteorite, because of the blue-green color it gave off as it blazed across the sky.

Finding any remnants of the space rock would be very difficult.

“You have to win a lottery,” he declared, “to find a really special piece of rock that came from a unique place.”

Meanwhile, Professor Phil Bland, from Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, explained that in most cases, “the entire meteorite burns up and nothing lands”.

However, due to the “sonic boom” felt by some residents in Croydon, the professor believes that the meteorite hunters may be lucky this time.

“There is a possibility that there is something,” he declared optimistically.