* Astronomy

A meteor lit up the Hawke's Bay sky at 9.45 last night and burnt up with a boom that rattled windows.

"It was like an earthquake, but without the shaking," said an Akina woman.

An Otane woman said her father saw a "huge, big fireball with a long tail" overhead and heading towards Elsthorpe.

"It came down, heading south, then broke up into six to eight pieces, before fading out. A second or so later, I heard a bang. I would say the bang was from the meteor hitting the atmosphere. The sound came later because it travels slower than light" - Bruce Hoyt who was driving south along the Hawke's Bay Expressway when the sky lit up as if by lightening.

"When these things come in, it is explosive decompression. With the heat of re-entry they reach a critical temperature and they explode" - Gary Sparks, Hawke's Bay Astronomical Society president.

The clear sky last night would have helped the sound travel. His guess was the meteor would have been no larger than a basketball.
August is one of the times of year when meteor showers were more frequent, with the Earth, orbiting the Sun at 100,000 km/hour, meeting the dust trail of a meteor.

"What people saw last night was probably a rogue meteor; something that was not in the same path as the dust trail."

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