Josh Sherborne caught the meteor on his dashcam. Source: YouTube
NEW Zealand residents have been left searching for answers after a sonic boom and huge blinding flash of light were witnessed on Wednesday night.
Lighting the night sky, the incident occurred around 10pm and was reported from the top of the South Island all the way to the tip of the North Island.
Auckland Stardome Observatory astronomer, Grant Christie, said the object was most likely a meteor.
“I think this has got the hallmarks of a pretty decent-sized rock, probably something in the order of a metre to two metres across,” he told Radio New Zealand.
Mr Christie said the meteor would have exploded at about 20 kilometres above the earth.
“A lot of people say it landed in the valley next to them, or it looked close — but that’s an illusion really.
“What looks like just above the hills near them is way, way beyond that.”
However, not everyone agrees.
Former publisher of Meteorite Magazine Joel Schiff said he didn’t witness the phenomenon in person, but based on footage he had seen online, he didn’t believe it was a meteor.
“Meteors are just those little streaks of light that people see every night of the week, they’re just the size of a grain of sand and they come generally from comets. They have nothing to do with this episode,” he told the New Zealand Herald.
“This is different, you would call this a fire ball, and when it lands on the ground it becomes a meteorite.”
Mr Schiff said it was hard to determine if the object had exploded in the atmosphere or if it made contact with the Earth’s surface.
“They can explode in the atmosphere and rain down debris and if it happens to be over the land you’re in luck,” he said.
“New Zealand is a narrow target and it depends on the path it was going and whether it went out to sea or broke up over land.
“You would need more sightings to determine the destination of it.”
Regardless of the origins, the occurrence managed to cause a lot of hype on social media.
Massive meteor north of Cambridge New Zealand. Anyone see anything? Big bright lights and noise.
— Miha (@Miha_Ua) February 11, 2015 Okay, i'm not going mad!! Half the country saw that bright sudden flash of light. #meteor #hamilton #NewZealand
— Angela Breen (@GLR_NZ) February 11, 2015 A METEOR JUST HIT NEW ZEALAND!! I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD OR BAD THING?! WILL ALIENS EAT ME?
— Becca || Niall pls x (@niallmynugget_) February 11, 2015 “@jbvillegasgurl: SO A #meteor JUST HIT NEW ZEALAND..IT LITTERLY LIT U THE WHOLE SKY” sorry to buzz kill, it was just Rihanna landing
— Shannon (@_iStan4Rihanna) February 11, 2015 Anyone spot the #meteor last night? Looked amazing! http://t.co/HD3aJUyOSm
— Waikato University (@waikato) February 11, 2015 I'm hoping that wasn't a meteor over Auckland and just Chris Hemsworth arriving from Asgard to come and be friends with me for the weekend.
— Mike Kilpatrick (@mikekilpatrick) February 11, 2015 
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