CSIRO research vessel Investigator films bright green meteor breaking up off the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia

A bright green meteor was spotted by the crew of the research vessel Investigator, operated by Australia's national science agency — CSIRO — at 10:21 UTC on November 18, 2020. The vessel was located off the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia at the time of the event. 

The event lasted some 10 seconds before it disintegrated and was captured by the ship's live stream camera.

CSIRO Voyage Manager on boars, John Hooper, said it was 'a stroke of luck to capture this footage.'

"What we saw on reviewing the livestream footage astounded us, the size and brightness of the meteor was incredible," Hooper said.

"The meteor crosses the sky directly in front of the ship and then breaks up – it was amazing to watch the footage and we were very fortunate that we captured it all on the ship livestream."

At the time of the event, RV Investigator was in the Tasman Sea about 100 km (62 miles) south off the Tasmanian coast.

The ship is in the area to undertake seafloor mapping of the Huon Marine Park for Parks Australia, conduct oceanographic studies and run sea trials for a variety of marine equipment.

This morning, local Hobart media was flooded with reports of sightings but at this stage, no other photos or videos are believed to have been captured.

Access the video (DropBox)

Featured image credit: CSIRO/RV Investigator