Smoke trail over Remarkables, Queenstown, may be meteor

A Queenstown man has captured some mysterious footage above the Remarkables mountain range.

Matt Wilcox was out for a walk when he spotted something odd.

"[It] was probably only visible for around a minute or so. Then it went behind the Remarkables and out of sight."

Southland Astronomical Society astronomer Mike Bailey had examined the footage and said he believed it was not a plane because it was moving too fast.

"It also looks dirty, aircraft contrails would normally be white," he added.

The best possible explanation was that it was a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere.

"It's likely nothing would have hit the ground, and that it was possibly as small as a golf ball, or even smaller."

Queenstown resident Matt Wilcox was lucky enough to witness what was probably a meteor on Wednesday evening. Photo / Matthew Willcox

Bailey said this kind of activity was more common than most people realised; tonnes of material entered the atmosphere each day.

The video, which was posted on social media, had some viewers speculating it could have been an asteroid.

However, Bailey said that certainly was not the case.

"If that was an asteroid that came in Queenstown probably wouldn't exist anymore."

The footage was captured late on Wednesday evening.