A fireball seen travelling through Melbourne's night sky was likely the remnants of a Russian rocket re-entering the earth's atmosphere.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Melburnians took to social media soon after midnight on Tuesday to report seeing the bright light.
Some reported hearing a loud bang and feeling their homes shake.
The light flashes were probably the remnants of a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket that launched earlier in the evening from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome spaceport, the Australian Space Agency said.
The spaceport is about 800km north of Moscow.
"According to Russian authorities, the launch placed a new-generation GLONASS-K2 global navigation satellite into orbit," the agency said.
"This launch was notified and remnants of the rocket were planned to safely re-enter the atmosphere into the ocean off the southeast coast of Tasmania."
The agency said it would continue to monitor how the re-entry went, along with its government partners.
Scientists backed up the Russian rocket theory.
Flinders University space archaeology expert Alice Gorman said the rocket's second stage, which weighed 105 tonnes and was 25 metres long, was cast off at extremely high altitude after its fuel was expended.
"Many Melburnians saw the rocket streaking across the sky as it broke into pieces, each one continuing to burn in a spectacular fireworks show," Dr Gorman said.
"Any surviving parts of the rocket would have ended up in the sea."
She said even though the rocket was moving much slower than a meteor, it was still fast enough to break the sound barrier.
Dr Gorman said farmers reported their animals were agitated in 1979 after the US Skylab space station fell back to earth over Western Australia, causing another sonic boom.
Victorians and Tasmanians saw an identical rocket stage from the launch of a military satellite from Plesetsk burning up in May 2020.
"It's not unheard of for Soyuz rocket stages to re-enter over Australia," Dr Gorman said.
Swinburne University of Technology chief scientist Professor Virginia Kilborn said it was also possible the fireball was a meteor that broke up as it hit the earth's atmosphere.
Australian Associated Press
