A meteor shower show was caught on cam by the residents in Victoria, Australia, on Friday, May 22. The shining blast of what appears to be a meteor was said to be slowly moving towards the skies around the area. However, experts have told the media that the supposed meteor was not entirely space rock; after all, it was a piece from a Russian spacecraft.
Australians get excited by watching what they thought was a meteor shower
After receiving reports about the supposed meteor shower, Victorian SES Chief Officer Tim Wiebusch issued an alert saying what they saw was "just some space junk re-entering the atmosphere."
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This claim was supported by The Astronomical Society of Victoria, which said that the object was the third stage of a rocket used to launch a Russian satellite.
Jonti Hunter, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland, explains that the object was surely a space-junk due to its slow pace crossing in the skies.
"The slow speed, about 6 kilometers per second, is a very telltale sign that it is space junk," he said.
What is a 'meteor'?
Meteors or space rocks are seen on skies anywhere around the world. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), space rocks are common objects that begin to transcend from space to Earth.
"When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere, or that of another planet, like Mars, at high speed (they) burn up. This is also when we refer to them as 'shooting stars," said NASA. "Sometimes meteors can even appear brighter than Venus - that's when we call them 'fireballs'. Scientists estimate that about 44,000 kilograms of meteoritic material fall on Earth each day."
