Live Footage Shows Bright Meteor Breaking Up Over Tasmania

The crew of the CSIRO research vessel Investigator captured an extremely bright meteor crossing the sky in front of their ship before breaking up over the ocean.

The meteor, which the crew says was bright green, was spotted by the bridge crew who immediately reported it to the science staff on the ship, as per a CSIRO press statement.

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An 'Incredible' sighting

After the meteor sighting was reported to the science team, the crew were amazed to find that the meteor had been captured perfectly by the ship's onboard livestream camera.

"What we saw on reviewing the livestream footage astounded us, the size and brightness of the meteor was incredible," CSIRO Investigator Voyage Manager John 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 video capture, the RV Investigator was in the Tasman Sea approximately 100 km (62 miles) south of the Tasmanian coast. The ship is in the area to undertake seafloor mapping of the Huon Marine Park, conduct oceanographic studies, and run sea trials for a variety of marine equipment.

The meteor was filmed on Wednesday, November 18 at 10:21 UTC, or 9:21 PM AEDT (local time in Hobart, Tasmania).

RV Investigator in the 'right place at the right time'

The livestream camera on RV Investigator streams vision from the ship 24-hours a day and can be found on the MNF website.

Though many are said to have seen the meteor over Tasmania on November 18, no other known footage has since emerged. 

"Cameras are everywhere, in our pockets and around our cities, but they have to be pointed in the right place at the right time – RV Investigator was in that place and time," Glen Nagle from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science said.

Have a look at the footage, via Science Alert, below: