Meteor flashes across WA skies

A meteor has flashed across the sky in WA, with people reporting seeing it from as far away as Margaret River.

Talkback radio has received several calls from people who saw the object flash across the sky about 9.30am.

Angela, on a property in Gidgegannup, said she saw the object and that something landed in a paddock on her property.

Callers said there appeared to be flames coming from the object.

Callers to 6PR described it looking as if "the sun was on fire" or like a welding arc.

One caller who saw it in the city said it was very bright and that a friend at Mukinbudin had also seen it.

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The West Australian reporter Gareth Costa said he was at traffic lights on West Coast and Oceanic Drive heading north when he saw an intense white light streak through the sky "with something of a tail behind it".

"It only lasted a second or so and then vanished," he said.

"It first seemed to be coming down right over City Beach and my first thought was it was a flare or a rocket, but it was coming from the sky so I’m pretty sure it was a meteor.

"I’ve seen plenty of shooting stars at night but this seemed much bigger than I’ve ever seen."

The West Australian reporter Marissa Lague said it was a plummeting white light with a tail and travelling very fast.

"When it exploded there was about two-second ball of incredibly bright light and then it was gone."

Curtin University planetary science expert Professor Phil Bland told ABC radio the object would have been quite large to be seen during the day.

"These things are very rare and any time when can get our hands on (remnants) it's amazing," he said.

"It's almost certainly a very big chunk of rock. It may well have left a meteorite on the ground.

"It would probably have come from the asteroid belt. Mostly they hit our atmosphere really fast, punch through, the air heats them up and often that's enough to melt the whole thing."

Jaxon Haines told The West Australian he was in Lesmurdie and saw "what i thought was a reflection of a plane getting very bright in the north-eastern sky".

"It looked like a meteor; with the bright head and a trailing tail."

Georgie Jeffries was driving from Margaret River and said she saw "a massive stream of yellow light flying very low through the sky with a bright orange flame as the tail."

" It was so bright and visible that it freaked me out as I thought it might have been a missile," she said.

Geraldton resident Tiffany Baskeyfield said she was driving south towards Greenough when she a moving light with a bright yellow tail that burnt up in the sky to the east.

More to come