---
title: "Watch a Mysterious Blue Fireball Scream Over Australia"
description: "On Monday, an unusual fireball streaked across the sky over Australia, leaving astronomers wondering whether they saw an incinerating satellite or a meteor."
date: "2020-06-17"
modified: "2020-06-17"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/watch-mysterious-blue-fireball-australia"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "meteorite"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch a Mysterious Blue Fireball Scream Over Australia

![On Monday, an unusual fireball streaked across the sky over Australia, leaving astronomers wondering whether they saw an incinerating satellite or a meteor.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/mysterious-blue-fireball-australia.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Perth Observatory\</em\>*

## Close Encounters

Early Monday morning, a dazzling blue fireball streaked across the sky in western Australia.

The unusual event left scientists speculating: was it space junk, a part of an old rocket that re-entered the atmosphere, or a meteorite that ventured too close to Earth? There seems to be more evidence for the latter, *[Live Science](<https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-fireball-pilbara.html>)*[ reports](<https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-fireball-pilbara.html>) — but as of yet there are no definite answers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBciYjJnhBF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

## Smooth Sailing

Some suspect the fireball was some human-made object burning up, but Curtin University researcher Renae Sayers [told the *Australian Broadcasting Corporation*](<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-15/green-glowing-space-object-filmed-over-pilbara/12355358>) that a burning satellite would have looked very different.

"What we tend to see, when objects like space debris, or if it's a satellite burning up, what we tend to see is sort of like crackles and sparks," Sayers told the *ABC*. "This is due to the fact that there is stuff burning up — so you've got solar panels going all over the place, you've got hunks of metal moving around as it's burning up through our atmosphere."

## Brief Visit

Sayers suggested that the fireball's "clean shot" and "gorgeous long tail" suggest that it was likely a meteorite entering the atmosphere — compare it, for instance, to these [earlier meteorite encounters](<https://futurism.com/four-fireballs-seen-eastern-us-within-24-hours>).

"The reason why this is really interesting and the jury is out with our scientists," Sayers told the *ABC*, "is that earlier this year we shared a paper of a grazing fireball that actually entered our atmosphere, burned 1,300km across the Australian sky and kicked back out into interstellar space, and that's what this looked like as well."

**READ MORE:** [Mysterious blue fireball streaks above Western Australia, puzzling astronomers](<https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-fireball-pilbara.html>) \[*Live Science*\]

**More on meteorites:** *[Scientists Discover Protein in a Meteorite](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-discover-protein-meteorite>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)