A loud explosion or bang shook shire homes in the early hours of Saturday morning was from a meteorite the size of a basketball entering the Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 2.15am.
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It was felt from Coffs Harbour to Port Macquarie and social media networks lit-up with many trying to understand what happened.
Dave Reneke from the Mid North Coast Astronomy Group said he believed it was a fireball from a meteor.
“To me this was a huge bit of rock that could have been the size of a basketball or maybe bigger,” Mr Reneke said.
“They burn up about 20km to 30km above your head and there is no chance it could have hit the ground as it would have blown up into smithereens.
“When it burns or blows up it creates a very distinctive sound usually associated with a boom like thunder, and people always report different flashing colours when it does explode.
“It’s rare but not unusual, and we are coming into a period of meteor activity or showers called the ‘Irionids’ here in Australia and it could be most likely preceding that.”
