Very bright fireball over New Zealand produces house-shaking sonic booms
A large fireball entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Otago area, South Island, New Zealand around 10:00 UTC (23:00 LT) on January 31, 2025, producing loud, house-shaking sonic booms. There is a possibility pieces of the object survived and ended up somewhere in the Eyre Mountains.
Fireball over South Island, New Zealand on January 31, 2025. Credit: Fireballs Aotearoa
Fireballs Aotearoa, a designated Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, received numerous reports of a massive fireball over the Otago area in South Island just after 23:00 LT on January 31.
The object was first captured on their cameras at about 90 km (56 miles) above Cadrona, traveling at around 20 km/s, and ended at around 20 km (12.4 miles) altitude over the Eyre Mountains.
The event was accompanied by loud sonic booms, described by locals as house shaking.
“Orbital data indicates the rock originated from asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is therefore likely a fragment of a larger asteroid that formed early in in solar system’s 4.5 billion year old history,” scientists at the Fireballs Aotearora said.
There is a possibility pieces of the object survived atmospheric entry and landed somewhere in the remote Eyre Mountains. However, more data and reports are needed to get specifics on the location. Until then, the hunt for the meteorites will not be organized.
A bright fireball was observed over Canterbury, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatū-Whanganui, Marlborough, and Wellington at approximately 07:53 UTC on October 27, 2024. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 35 reports of this event, with observation durations ranging from less than a second to about 7.5 seconds. Observers reported magnitudes between -5 and -18 with no accompanying sounds.
Earlier that year, on March 13, 2024, a very bright fireball was seen over Otago and Canterbury, leading to a public meteorite hunt.
A similar event to yesterday’s occurred on June 27, 2023, over the Manawatū region in North Island. Footage of the event showed two huge blasts in the sky, turning the cloudy morning sky into bright orange. The ground shook soon after the flashes, rattling the homes of many people near Feilding, Manawatū District. Some residents described the sound as an explosion of a gas tanker or a car exploding after hitting a house.
References:
1 Otago fireball January 31 Update – Fireballs Aotearoa – January 31, 2025
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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