'The sky is falling': Meteor spotted over lower North Island

Lower North Island residents' Thursday was interrupted by a fireball in the sky as hundreds reported seeing a potential meteor crashing to Earth.

Residents took to social media to ask if others also saw "the sky falling", many in disbelief.

A loud bang and rumbling noises were heard, and many suspected it was an earthquake.

The sound was heard in the Wellington and Wairarapa regions.

"I could hear my house shaking like it was an earthquake but the ground didn't actually move," one person commented on a Facebook post.

Others said that their windows shook violently or that they thought it was an explosion close by.

I was up on the Wainuiomata Coast Ridgeline and heard a looong (couple of minutes), low, emergent rumbling. Though it was a landslide or earthquake initially, but no ground shaking.... Now reports of a meteor!! 🪨🚀

Good thing I already had PPE on 👷🏼‍♀️😉 https://t.co/6hjvgffQ1D pic.twitter.com/f5x8LyAgip

— Emily Warren-Smith (@warrenseismo) July 7, 2022

Vanessa Judd, from Masterton, says she initially thought it was something much more sinister because of the "sheer volume of the noise and the way it shook the ground".

"My entire house was shaking, I thought a truck had driven into the side of my house or maybe a transformer box."

She says it was "one of the most bizarre experiences" of her life.

Some describe seeing a "bright flash of light" in the sky during the loud noise, some saying it had a long tail, others saying it was a "giant fireball".

An interesting signature from the Wellington Radar, at 1:52pm.

This shows a cross-section of the atmosphere, with what may be the smoke trail of the meteor ☄ that passed over the lower North Island.

It's about the right place and time, and it's not meteorological. pic.twitter.com/2pY3WqzenT

— MetService (@MetService) July 7, 2022

Looking directly south in the Hutt Valley and an object has literally just burnt up in the atmosphere!!! A huge flash of light as it combusted and disintegrated!

Never seen anything like it in my life 😯😯 pic.twitter.com/vfLOl6TMmT

— James Sorensen 🤓 (@jhpsorensen) July 7, 2022

Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin said it could be "a number of things": "Either a re-entering satellite or potentially a meteoroid, which is a space rock coming through the Earth's atmosphere and surviving its passage.

"If you've got video or photographs of the event it's important to keep them, as we might be able to use them to triangulate the position of the thing, and where it landed - if it did land.

Saw a meteor fireball over Upper Hutt at about 1:49pm
Photo taken just after the fireball flashed-by and shows the smoke trail.@WeatherWatchNZ #Meteor https://t.co/X3pYVoPOlp pic.twitter.com/Kb0HyGaK7y

— pbmao (@pbmao) July 7, 2022

"It may be quite scientifically important to retrieve this thing. Meteorites in this country are quite rare so actually getting one would be quite cool."