'Fireball' in Napier sky may have been a piece of space junk

President of Hawke's Bay's Astronomical Society Gary Spark said from what he saw it looked like a bit of space junk burning up in our atmosphere.

A "fireball" spotted over Napier on Monday evening was likely a piece of space junk burning up, an expert says.

Many onlookers, including one who videoed the spectacle from his Maraenui address, saw what looked like a stream of fire travelling across the sky about 5.55pm.

Some had fairly sensible and accurate views on what it could be:

"Was just a plane up real high and the sun angle made it look awesome," one said.

Another said: "It is almost certainly a high altitude jet with a short lived contrail."

Hawke's Bay's Astronomical Society president Gary Spark said from what he saw it looked like a bit of space junk burning up in our atmosphere.

"Chances are that it is just another piece of de-orbiting space junk like some that came down a few months ago."

He said that it's quite a common thing to see if you're lucky especially, in Hawke's Bay as most of the stuff that does come into the atmosphere goes into the Pacific Ocean.

"It is not uncommon to see that type of thing from here as the main dumping ground for space junk is the South Pacific Ocean," Sparks said.

"There's lots of empty space out there."