‘Beaming bright light’ flashes across the sky as meteor crashes around Townsville

A driver has shared incredible footage of the moment a ‘beaming bright light’ flashed across the sky.

Jim Robertson’s dashcam recorded the extraordinary moment the sky lit up, 9.22pm on Saturday night, as he drove along University Road in Townsville.

There were multiple reports in Queensland of bright blue and green flashes high above followed by a booming noise.

What Mr Robertson, from Townsville, saw was a large streaking light in the sky.

He said the incident was over in ‘a couple of seconds’.

There were multiple reports in Queensland of bright brightly coloured flashes high in the sky above Townsville on Saturday night followed by a booming noise

‘We just thought, ‘What the hell is that? Are we being invaded, was it a plane crash, was it space junk?’ he told 9News.

An expert has weighed in already to shut down any talk of flying saucers. 

Australian National University Astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker said it was definitely a meteor.

He said the incident was most likely caused by part of an asteroid breaking away between Mars and Jupiter.

‘As it hit the earth’s atmosphere, it created this bright flash and show in the sky,’ Dr Tucker said.

The blue-green colour flashes seen are caused by the iron and nickel on the meteor heating up.

The meteor was could have been travelling between 100,000 and 150,000 kilometres per hour, Dr Tucker said.

He said the boom sound people hear comes from the meteor breaking apart as it nears earth.

 An expert has weighed in already to shut down any talk of flying saucers

 Australian National University Astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker said it was definitely a meteor