Looking for junk in Hawke's Bay - space junk

Napier astronomer and Holt Planetarium director Gary Sparks, who says if space junk or "meteor" matter has hit the deck in Hawke's Bay he'd love to know about it. Photo / NZME

Things going on in the night skies have sparked suggestions space junk could have landed in remote Hawke's Bay and exploded early on Friday.

Although he was not aware of reports until contacted by Hawke's Bay Today, Holt Planetarium director Gary Sparks, of Napier, says that with space junk being prevalent at this time of the year – both targeted to land in the ocean and the random stuff that hasn't been in use for years – anything's possible.

He says if anything is found where the junk, or even meteor, has hit the ground he'd "certainly like to hear about it".

It's considered unlikely to be linked to "fireball" activity reported overnight, which was focused more on the Whanganui region.

Waipawa man Peter Lemon woke a few minutes before 6am, noticing the wind outside and moving up to a window to look out.

It was then he saw the first of three "meteors", a flash to the north-northwest, followed almost immediately by a meteor streaking to the ground, impacting and creating a muted flash.

"As I turned to close the window, I caught sight of a third impact flash," he said. "Since I have no idea how big the meteor(s) was/were, I can only guess that the impact was roughly 10-20km away from where I was," he said.

He had since searched the internet, finding that globally there had been at least 11 reports of "fireballs" in the skies in the overnight period, but asked: "Has no one else reported these three fragments, or their impacts?

"It's the first time I've seen a meteor touch down AND create an impact flash," he said. "Again, I'm assuming the flashes were small explosions from the meteors and not secondary explosions, like from a power substation being struck."

Amid the difficulty judging distances in the night sky, his "guess" was that impact could be "somewhere between Argyll and Te Onepu" - but it could've been "nearer or further away".

Sparks said it wouldn't be unusual for such events to have few witnesses – it depends on such things as the time of night that people might be watching the skies, viewing conditions (city lights compare with the open sky of rural areas), and when matter might be dragged into the atmosphere from space and hurtled towards Earth.

Most wouldn't flash, he said. "It's just a rock hitting the ground."

Police had received no reports of such incidents in the Hawke's Bay region overnight.