Green fireball explodes in city sky as annual meteor shower hits Australia's east coast
It wasn't a bird, a plane or Superman that made Brisbane's sky come alight overnight. It wasn't air pollution or an alien either.
No, the phenomenon behind the green fireball viewed by night owls or those watching the city's 24/7 weather livestream was a meteor travelling about 40 kilometres a second that was probably the size of your fist.
While many stargazers believed the light show was part of the Lyrids meteor shower, which comes to the skies each April for about two weeks, experts say this meteor appeared to be from a different celestial event.
The coincidence has now turned attention to the Lyrids meteor shower, an event that has been happening in our skies for at least the past 2700 years or so.
What is the Lyrids meteor shower?
First recorded in 687BC by the Chinese, according to NASA, the Lyrids shower occurs when the Earth passes through the debris trail left by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered by A.E. Thatcher on April 5, 1861.
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When comets travel around the sun, they leave a dusty trail of particles behind them. These particles, which can also come from broken asteroids, then collide with our atmosphere when the Earth, on its 365-day orbit around the sun, comes into the trail's path.
Named after the nearby constellation Lyra, Lyrids are what we see when Thatcher's space debris enters our atmosphere and disintegrates, creating fiery streaks in the sky. Meteor showers occur roughly 30 times a year, but what makes the Lyrids unique – aside from the fact they're one of the oldest recorded meteor showers in the world – is that they don't leave long glowing dust trails.
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