Lily Hart says her family is feeling very lucky having caught rare footage of a fireball meteor burning up in the sky over the upper North Island on Thursday night.
Lily's cousin, Sharni, captured the mysterious object streak across the sky in Otaika Valley, Whangārei just after 9.20pm.
She was filming Lily's three-year-old daughter Hasley Rose Tohu Hart singing at the time, then they noticed the flash of light in the background later.
"We thought it was pretty cool, and to have it all on footage is even more cool," Lily told 1News.
"We're pretty lucky to see it too."
Hart wasn't the only one to spot the rare phenomenon, with many commenting on a Facebook post on the page Whangārei Noticeboard last night.
Several people said they spotted it in the Whangārei suburbs of Onerahi, Otangarei and Raumanga, as well as in Whangaruru and Russell.
One person also described hearing a "boom" over Mangawhai.
Stardome astronomer Josh Kirkley told 1News it was a fireball meteor, which is "essentially a big bright meteor" which can be seen on fire and burning up.
He said they usually last a few seconds, as video shows for this one.
Some people online had suggested it was space junk, but Kirkley said it was moving far too fast for that.
"It was definitely extraterrestrial, something from outer space."
But while they're not uncommon, Kirkley said they're rare to see - in fact he's only ever seen one himself before.
"We think that there's probably like half a million every year, the problem with that though is a lot of them have been during the day so we never see them, over the ocean or simply no one is looking at the right place at the right time," he said.
"So yeah, I think they're more rare to actually see let alone capture it on video."
Over New Zealand, Kirkley said there's about one or two a year and the colour of them can tell a lot about what it's made up of and what chemicals they're rich in.
"They totally look scary but it's definitely no cause for concern, it's definitely not an Armageddon Deep Impact moment at all. They're really common and they're just naturally occurring things," he said.
"If anything, they're just really awesome events to see and witness, they're definitely more spectacular than they are dangerous."
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