Dozens of people witnessed a ’meteor' lighting up the night sky in Mindarie, Western Australia.
When he initially saw the light, Garratt thought it may have been lightning. But that guess went out the window when he heard the boom that came afterward.
“It shook the whole house, the windows, the dog went psycho,” said Garratt. “They all went running outside thinking the sky was falling.”
Where Did the ‘Meteor’ Land?
Curtin University scientists are trying to find out whether the meteor hit the ground and where it landed, the ABC reported.“People reported sonic booms,” said Bland. “You only get that if it goes through the atmosphere low down in the atmosphere, which is a very good sign.”
Bland also said that by using the different angles from the camera recordings, his team may be able to triangulate the location of the meteor, if it landed at all.
They would also attempt to estimate the size and speed of the meteor, and where it came from within the Solar System.
Bland said that The Desert Fireball Network expected to finish their calculations by the end of the day on Aug. 28.
After the calculations, they would attempt to find the meteorite in the hopes of being able to study it.
“Meteorites are a great scientific resource in terms of working out how the solar system formed and how it evolved,” Bland told the local media.