A bright and colourful object that flew across the sky tonight, and was spotted by hundreds of people across the country, is thought to be a meteor.Police and the MetService received dozens of calls this evening about an object described as looking like a "crashing satellite".
Earth and Sky senior observer Matt Hall said it was "most likely" a meteor which had broken away from a comet or asteroid.
"As it enters the Earth's atmosphere, it burns up into smaller pieces. They saw quite a bright light shooting from northeast to east with what looked like bright sparks coming off the back of it."
Meteors often looked like they were overhead when in fact they were a long way away, he said.
Police earlier said the line left in the sky was possibly a contrail, the water vapour that trails a plane's flight path.
Police received more than 20 calls around 7pm from people concerned about what the object is, a communications spokesman said.
MetService received numerous calls from residents in the lower North Island and upper South Island.
Calls had been mainly from Wellington, Kaikoura and Otaki. Read More
