Australians in the Northern Territory were in for a treat in the early hours of Sunday when their skies lit up with, what everyone thought, was a meteor shower. In addition to this, the entire event was recorded on CCTV cameras.
Many described that the meteorite was so bright that it made the sky look like there was daylight. The meteor was 500 km away from Alice Springs, near Tennant Creek.
CCTV footage from Alice Springs and Tennant Creek (central Australia) which captures a meteor shower on 19th May 2019 https://t.co/M41RGVl1eL pic.twitter.com/JmW6jkBfF0
— Domenico Calia (@CaliaDomenico) May 20, 2019
"And the ones in Alice Springs basically show Alice Springs showing up like daylight. It was quite magnificent," NT Police Duty Superintendent James O'Brien was quoted as saying by ABC Australia. He added that they were quite dubious about it.
Those who got to watch the spectacle said that as the meteorite was closing in, the ground rumbled as though there was an earthquake.
One resident who saw the entire shower called ABC Alice Springs. The man was identified as Alex. "It was a bright light through the window, went dull a bit and then very bright, a quick flash but really bright, sort of a brilliant golden yellow," he said.
He added, "You could see everything, and I thought 'Gee that seemed to be really close'."
A woman named Susan described the noise as "a big giant stomping on the ceiling." O'Brien, however, does not know where it landed. "We've got two CCTV cameras in Alice Springs that actually caught it, but one in Tennant Creek that shows it travelling through the sky as it hurtles towards the ground," he said.
The police are also surprised that many did not report the meteor shower and the Superintendent assumed that the people living in the area just put the disturbance to the storms in the region over the weekend.
