Forty kilometres a second: Fireball lights up the sky over Brisbane
It lit up the night sky across south-east Queensland and northern NSW overnight, yet the meteor that caused Monday night’s fireball was probably just the size of your fist. The sky lit up about 7.30pm, as the meteor tore through the atmosphere at an estimated 40 kilometres a second. University of Southern Queensland astronomer Professor Jonti Horner said while the fireball coincided with the Lyrid meteor shower, it definitely was not part of the annual cosmic occurrence. How could Horner be so sure? Simply because Australia was facing in the wrong direction to experience the Lyrid shower at the time.
