A “bloody huge” meteor that sounded like a “plane crashing” and made dogs go “psycho” dazzled onlookers as it streaked across the Perth night sky on Tuesday. Scientists say it most likely hit Earth.
Firefighters received numerous calls at around 7:40 pm, on Tuesday, from frantic locals who had caught a glimpse of the fireball. Some said they suspected it was a UFO, while others phoned because they feared it could start a massive fire.
One woman said she was in the shower when she heard something akin to a “plane crashing.”
Rosena Cox told ABC: “I just heard this enormous bang, it sounded like an explosion and I just thought ‘what on earth was that’ because it was so intense.”
Another said it couldn’t have been just thunder because of the “boom” that accompanied it. Robyn Garratt said people felt like “the sky was falling.”
“It shook the whole house, the windows, the dog went psycho,” Garratt added.
Twitter was afloat with shocked accounts of the blazing ball.
One branded it “bloody huge”, while another believed he had been “flashed by a speed camera”.
I thought I got flashed by a speed camera going the speed limit 😂 Something flashed in the sky, and started to burn and fall… Did anyone else happen to see it?? Was it a plane or a meteor 😱 #Perth
— ralphygo (@goralphy) August 28, 2018
Director of the Desert Fireball Network, Professor Phil Bland, said initial observations suggested the inferno ball had hit Earth. He said because the object was “unusually bright” it must have been “big,” before adding that the sonic booms reported by people are a compelling factor indicating that the fireball entered the atmosphere.
CCTV and witness footage of the burning object is now being reviewed by the Perth Observatory in a bid to understand its origin.
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