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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Eva Corlett in Wellington

Fire in the sky: on the trail of space rocks with New Zealand’s meteorite hunters

Large bright light against a blue-tinted night sky
A colour-enhanced image of a meteor believed to have fallen in New Zealand’s Otago region. Photograph: James Scott/University of Otago

It looks like a scene from a crime show as a search party in hi-vis jackets walks in formation, heads down, searching the brush for clues. But this group is not looking for evidence of a crime, they are after something harder to find: celestial debris from the formation of our solar system.

On 28 August, just before 11pm, an immense bright light was seen streaking across New Zealand’s southern sky, followed by a sonic boom. The spectacle, like a brushstroke of white paint on black ink, was captured by 20 hi-tech cameras across Southland set up for this exact event – a meteor entering the atmosphere above, and hopefully landing in, New Zealand.

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