Night sky lights up briefly under meteor shower

A brilliant flash of light reported in the sky above Auckland at the weekend is believed to be due to Earth passing through a meteor shower.

Gregory Wood watched the light on Saturday night to the west of Orewa and said the meteor's tail resembled a vapour trail.

In central Auckland, Mike Hammond saw "an incredible streak of light that lit up the night sky for one to two seconds".

From One Tree Hill Domain, Emma Armitage saw "an extremely bright light with a greenish hue twinkling for a couple of seconds".

The reported object was likely to be a meteor becoming visible as it entered Earth's atmosphere at high speed, said Auckland Astronomical Society president Dr Grant Christie. He said Earth had been for a few days "ploughing through a meteor shower" or debris from the constellation of Gemini. Meteors could be a particle of dust or rock fragments.