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From AAP
(AEST)
A BRIGHT flash in the sky captivated scores of people across
Western Australia last night, who witnessed what may have
been dust shed by a comet thousands of years ago.
Perth
Observatory astronomer Jamie Biggs said the event was seen
as far north as Dandaragan, 170 kilometres north of Perth,
and as far south as Albany, 410 kilometres south of Perth.
Dr Biggs
said the specific incident was what's called a fireball
- a bright shooting star.
"We're
not sure, but there is a meteor stream that the earth has
just started passing through last night, and this is the
dust and junk that has been shed by a comet, possibly thousands
of years ago," Dr Biggs said.
"We're
ploughing through what's left of its orbit, and so we get
hit by all this dust so we get an increase in meteor activity
and it looks like it's from one point in the sky.
"This
object may have been one of those but it's hard to know.
"It
was a lot brighter than what these things normally are."
About
100 people rang the Perth Observatory to report the event.
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