A large bang, thought to have been caused by a meteor, startled residents in Melbourne‘s north-east last night.
The sound of the explosion reverberated around the suburbs of Doreen and Mernda at about 9pm.
Video captured from CCTV cameras from a house in the suburb showed an orange light flash before a booming noise is heard seconds later.
Tradie Sean Scanlon didn’t scamper when he heard the explosion but he was certainly shocked.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Scanlon said.
His family was inside at the time and feared there was a mechanical mishap.
“The wife was thinking, working on the car and heard something bang, she thought something happened in the garage,” he said.
Hundreds of residents took to social media to report the noise and speculate on its source.
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Astrophysicist Dr Clare Kenyon said at this stage the source is possibly a meteor.
“It’s just getting faster and faster, and hotter and hotter,” Dr Kenyon said.
“What actually happens is it’s starting to travel faster than the particles of air can push the sound away.”
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Experts believe the meteor was about the size of a soccer ball and there is a chance fragments made landfall in the northern suburbs.
The Australian Space Agency said the remains were likely to be a Russian rocket.
The unexpected astronomy event was captured by witnesses across the state.
