A group of travelers are left confused after spotting an unusual green fireball falling from the sky in Australia on Thursday, Oct. 10.
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Numerous people in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland reported seeing a large green fireball dropping in the sky just before 6 a.m. local time, UPI reported. One even caught the unidentified object making its way across Australia’s east coast.
Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist with Australian National University, revealed to 2GB radio host Ben Fordham that the object was likely a meteor. He pointed out that the green color that witnesses saw indicated iron and nickel were burning up in the atmosphere.
“It’s unlikely fragments fell on the ground,” Tucker explained. “It clearly covered a lot of distance in a short amount of time. So definitely a broken chunk of an asteroid that randomly hit the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Tucker further observed that some meteors travel at speeds of 50,000 to 100,000 kilometers per hour. He noted that the meteor had likely been visible in Australia.
‘Fireballs’ Are a Common Astronomical Term to Identify ‘Exceptionally Bright’ Meteors, NASA Explains
NASA also reveals that “fireballs” and “bolides” are astronomical terms to identify “exceptionally bright” meteors that are noticeably seen over a large area.
“A meteoroid is generally defined as an asteroid or comet fragment that orbits the Sun,” NASA points out. “And has an approximate size between ten microns and a meter or so. Meteors, or ‘shooting stars,’ are the visible paths of meteoroids that have entered the Earth’s atmosphere at high velocities.”
AccuWeather Meteorologist Dave Samuhel also stated, “The color of light that the meteors produce depends on their chemical composition. Different chemicals in the meteors produce different colors as they burn up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere.”
NASA then explained that meteors are sometimes observed with red, yellow, or green trails. “The colors are caused by the ionization of molecules – like oxygen which appears to be green,” the organization shared.
Other colors that meteors have been observed to be are red (nitrogen/oxygen), yellow (iron), purple (calcium), and orange (sodium). American Meteorological Society (AMS) pointed out, “Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color.”
Furthermore, radars have indicated that there are 12,0000 meteors on a “given night” that are about the size of dust. Around 30 meteor showers are reportedly visible to observe on Earth each year.