‘Burning ball of fire’: Reports of meteors over NZ skies

People from Canterbury to Auckland reported spotting meteors in our skies last night. Photo / 123fr

People around the country were wowed last night by meteors that shot through the sky, with the fireballs reported by residents from Canterbury through to Auckland.

The flaming objects were spotted streaking through the atmosphere between 8pm and 10pm on Monday.

“Just saw a nice meteorite go over Canterbury (Lincoln),” one texter told Marcus Lush on Newstalk ZB just after 8.30pm.

Around 8.50pm another spotted two meteors shooting over Bombay, saying they were “pretty bright”, with a “fireball” shooting across Glen Innes half an hour later “very high but very fast”.

Several people in Napier also spotted bright lights in the sky.

“Did anyone else just see that burning ball of fire in the sky?” one said. “Not sure if it was a meteorite but wow.”

Several people responded that they had felt a slight shake, which they assumed was an earthquake.

A meteor is the technical term for the fireball or shooting star produced when a space rock enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burns up, according to Nasa.

If the object does not completely burn up in the atmosphere and hits the Earth, it is called a meteorite.