Meteorite hunt leader describes seeing ‘fireball streak through the sky’

By RNZ

Meteorite hunter Dennis Behan, who spotted New Zealand’s 10th meteorite tear through the atmosphere, says he “jumped out” after seeing his first fireball.

He told Morning Report he was looking at the weeds in his garden in Queenstown when he noticed “this amazing fireball streak through the sky, which is pretty exciting”.

It left him and his wife speechless, he said.

“I immediately jumped out. It was the first fireball I’d ever seen.”

He said coincidentally, he had a meteor camera pointed in the same direction.

Behan, a member of Fireballs Aotearoa, led the search effort.

The group has about 110 such cameras across New Zealand, which helps it narrow the search area for the meteorites.

Aotearoa's 10th meteorite has been discovered on Crown land in the South Island's Mackenzie Country. Photo / Supplied / Fireballs Aotearoa

“I’m not a scientist, but we are left with ... it was a rock about the size of a clenched fist, and it was sitting in a crater that was slightly larger than that.

“But because of the drought conditions in the Mackenzie Country, it hit the ground and didn’t really do anything.”

It looked quite like the other rocks in the area.

Behan said the rock was “lighter than coal, but sort of darker grey rather than the dark black coal”.

Otago Univerity geologist Dr Marshall Palmer. Photo / Supplied / Fireballs Aotearoa

Otago University geologist Dr Marshall Palmer scanned the meteorite with a device and was “99 per cent sure that this rock was a meteorite”.

The rock would now make its way to Otago University to confirm its extra-terrestrial origins.

Fireballs Aotearoa believed this was the first time a fireball had been tracked and a meteorite retrieved in New Zealand.

The space rock entered Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 50 to 60 kilometres per second on March 13.

About 20 searchers set off to find the rock, south of Lake Tekapo.