Mystery surrounds green ‘comet’

An unidentified green object streaked across the Queensland sky last night, before landing on a property between Toowoomba and Warwick near the Great Dividing Range.

Farmer Don Vernon lives on the property next to where the object hit the ground, and watched it come in to land.

“I was finished on the farm and driving home, and as I came in the gate I faced this enormous green ball of light with a white centre.

“It disappeared behind a ridge and I immediately drove out over the ridge without stopping so I was there in a few minutes.

“When I turned the lights off the car I saw a glowing green ball up on the ridge three-quarters of a mile away and a smaller piece was rolling down the side of the ridge. They were both glowing green,” he said.

Mr Vernon, who is in his seventies, said the object landed on a steep section of land that was covered in undergrowth and was not easily accessible.

“It was a brilliant light before it landed,” he says. “A bit like a green sun. I rang a neighbour and asked if he had found superman.”

Astronomers are uncertain whether the object was a piece of space junk or a meteorite, however Jim Barclay from the Maidenwell Observatory suspects it was part of a satellite or some rocket casing.

“The description that I received from phone calls was that it was of a greeny blue colour which typically suggests something metallic,” Mr Barclay said.

“Over 20,000 pieces of space junk are currently hurtling around the earth and they have to come back down. If this had landed on someone’s house though it could have killed someone,” he said.

The object, which looked like a comet, was spotted by hundreds of people and airport control towers across south-east Queensland at around 6:30pm last night.

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