Victorian residents have reported a “huge explosion” shaking homes as a flaming ball of light streaked across the sky late on Sunday.
Hundreds of people took to social media to describe the meteor lighting up the dark over western Victoria about 8pm.
Initially, the earth-shaking impact was reported as a “mini earthquake” — with scores of people lodging a “felt” report.
The rumble was later clarified as the effects of the meteor as it created a sonic boom and seemingly crashed into Earth.
Reports came from people between Ballarat and Bendigo, in central Victoria, and others in Melbourne’s outer-western suburbs.
“It was massive,” posted Christine Stubbs on Facebook.
“Was so big and bright and then minutes later after it disappeared I heard a rumble and felt my house shake in Kyneton.”
Amanda Yap said she was driving at Doncaster and saw “red and gold fly across the sky”.
Chantel Hooker said she saw the ball of light from her lounge room window near Warrnambool.
“Husband thought I was seeing the reflection of the fire in the window. It was actually pretty big,” she wrote.
Others didn’t see the celestial phenomenon but heard a “sonic boom”, explosion or bang.
In Bendigo, Elena Gagliardi said the bang was “so loud”.
“All the neighbours were outside trying to figure out what happened.”
Damien and Kate Schleter said it sounded like an “explosion” in Bendigo.
“The entire house shook,” they posted.
Tanya Trewin, also in the Bendigo area, said the noise was so loud she thought there had been a truck crash.
Bill Irwin wrote: “I thought a big brush tail possum had fallen out of the tree and done a belly flop on the tank.
Lee Dryden-Trewartha felt the boom and thought “my roof was caving in”.
Sam Goodwin said: “Didn’t see it but explains the bang I heard and my dogs going crazy in Coimadai.”
The meteor was reportedly unlikely to be associated with this year’s annual Perseid meteor shower, which is due to peak from Monday-Wednesday.
The Perseid shower is one of the most prolific meteor showers of the year, according to space.com. It is caused by Earth passing through rock and ice debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle.
The shower peaks when Earth travels through the densest and dustiest part of the debris.
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