Latest news with #PerthObservatory
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Science
- News.com.au
Meteorite slams into Earth's atmosphere at 34km per second above Western Australia
A meteorite has been captured lighting up skies over Western Australia on 'as a fist-sized chunk of space rock slammed' into the Earth's atmosphere at 34km per second, according to the Perth Observatory. An observatory spokesman said the meteorite was a leftover fragile cometary fragment made up of icy, dusty debris from the early stages of the solar system. 'When these objects enter Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors,' a spokesman said on social media. 'If they're especially bright, like this one, they're often referred to as fireballs.' The spokesman said the meteorite entered the atmosphere over the ocean about 300km southwest of Perth, then began to heat up and break producing flashes of light on Wednesday night. 'The entire light show ended at an altitude of 69km, with the object destroyed,' the spokesman said. 'No fragments reached the ground.'
West Australian
3 days ago
- Science
- West Australian
Perth Observatory's Matt Wood confirms stony iron Meteorite lit up sky across WA on Wednesday night
A cosmic spectacle illuminated the night sky across WA on Wednesday night. A meteorite travelled through the atmosphere just after 9.30pm. Matt Woods, from the Perth Observatory, said the meteor was travelling anywhere between 16 to 50km per second. WATCH THE METEORITE VISION IN THE PLAYER ABOVE 'From the footage I have seen its green which means it was a stony iron meteorite,' he said. 'It doesn't look like it survived, and so it burnt up in our atmosphere . . . you would have seen a number of little explosions at the end and that was it breaking up and disintegrating.' Curious sky gazers eager to know what they had seen took to Facebook just after 9.30pm to talk about the bright light they saw zoom through the sky. West Aussies shared their footage and experiences from different vantage points across the State as they watched on in awe of the spectacular sight. 'Big green meteor with a firey front just lit up the sky over Halls Head Anyone else see it?' one social media user wrote. 'We saw it. It was beautiful,' someone else commented. 'Saw the flash in Serpentine,' another wrote. Just last month, West Aussie witnessed something that resembled a fireball zooming across Perth. The observatory suggested the stunning event was likely space junk, which is debris from rockets or satellites that are no longer orbiting. 'Unfortunately, the fireball seen over Perth a few moments ago isn't Optus Prime or Bumblebee, it does look like space junk.'
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Science
- Perth Now
WATCH: Meteorite lights up night sky across WA
A cosmic spectacle illuminated the night sky across WA on Wednesday night. A meteorite travelled through the atmosphere just after 9.30pm. Matt Woods, from the Perth Observatory, said the meteor was travelling anywhere between 16 to 50km per second. WATCH THE METEORITE VISION IN THE PLAYER ABOVE 'From the footage I have seen its green which means it was a stony iron meteorite,' he said. 'It doesn't look like it survived, and so it burnt up in our atmosphere . . . you would have seen a number of little explosions at the end and that was it breaking up and disintegrating.' Matt Woods, from the Perth Observatory, said the meteor was travelling anywhere between 16 to 50km per second. Credit: Calvin Borowski / Calvin Borowski Curious sky gazers eager to know what they had seen took to Facebook just after 9.30pm to talk about the bright light they saw zoom through the sky. West Aussies shared their footage and experiences from different vantage points across the State as they watched on in awe of the spectacular sight. 'Big green meteor with a firey front just lit up the sky over Halls Head Anyone else see it?' one social media user wrote. 'We saw it. It was beautiful,' someone else commented. 'Saw the flash in Serpentine,' another wrote. Just last month, West Aussie witnessed something that resembled a fireball zooming across Perth. The observatory suggested the stunning event was likely space junk, which is debris from rockets or satellites that are no longer orbiting. 'Unfortunately, the fireball seen over Perth a few moments ago isn't Optus Prime or Bumblebee, it does look like space junk.'
Perth Now
18-07-2025
- Science
- Perth Now
West Aussies in awe of spectacle captured in night sky
A celestial spectacle resembling a shooting star has illuminated the night sky across WA on Friday night. Perth Observatory received an abundance of reports from curious sky gazers eager to know what they had just seen. 'Our messages are blowing up, which means one thing. The Autobots are arriving!!!!!,' a hilarious post on Perth Observatory's Facebook page was captioned. The observatory was quick to clarify the stunning event was likely space junk. 'Unfortunately, the fireball seen over Perth a few moments ago isn't Optus Prime or Bumblebee, it does look like space junk. Fellow West Aussies shared their footage and experiences from different vantage points across the State as they watched on in awe of the spectacle. If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. 'We were just driving home from Perth and were about 5 kms from Denmark and we saw it. It was so bright and huge and it stayed visible for at least 25/30 seconds after we first saw it. Incredible to see!!!,' one local commented. One said: 'We were just driving home from Perth and were about 5 kms from Denmark and we saw it. It was so bright and huge and it stayed visible for at least 25/30 seconds after we first saw it. Incredible to see!!!'
West Australian
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
‘Fireball' shoots across city's night sky in what the Perth Observatory believes to be space junk
A celestial spectacle resembling a shooting star has illuminated the night sky across WA on Friday night. Perth Observatory received an abundance of reports from curious sky gazers eager to know what they had just seen. 'Our messages are blowing up, which means one thing. The Autobots are arriving!!!!!,' a hilarious post on Perth Observatory's Facebook page was captioned. The observatory was quick to clarify the stunning event was likely space junk. 'Unfortunately, the fireball seen over Perth a few moments ago isn't Optus Prime or Bumblebee, it does look like space junk. Fellow West Aussies shared their footage and experiences from different vantage points across the State as they watched on in awe of the spectacle. 'We were just driving home from Perth and were about 5 kms from Denmark and we saw it. It was so bright and huge and it stayed visible for at least 25/30 seconds after we first saw it. Incredible to see!!!,' one local commented. One said: 'We were just driving home from Perth and were about 5 kms from Denmark and we saw it. It was so bright and huge and it stayed visible for at least 25/30 seconds after we first saw it. Incredible to see!!!'
