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© PerthNowFALLING STAR: PerthNow reader Robin Scott captured this "falling star'' over Morley early Saturday morning.
The mysterious "falling star'' sighted over Perth early Saturday morning has been identified as a Soyuz rocket body which was scheduled to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

PerthNow reader Robin Scott captured these images of what appeared to be a "falling star'' early Saturday morning when he was in the Morley area looking east or south-east.

Bickley Observatory government Astronomer Ralph Martin initially said he was unsure what the strange lights in the sky were, but said it appeared to be some kind of man-made object "re-entry''.

Mr Martin did some research and gave PerthNow the answer 24 hours later.

"It was a Soyuz-U Rocket Body that was due to re-enter the earth's atmosphere at 6.40am WAST, instead it re-entered 1.5 hours (90 minutes) earlier, which isn't that unusual, off the southern coast of Australia,'' Mr Martin said.

Mr Scott told PerthNow he was leaving work early Saturday driving towards Tonkin Highway when he saw what he described as a "falling star''.

"I was going home from work leaving Morley driving towards Tonkin Highway,'' Mr Scott explained.

"I saw what looked like a falling star.The star fell from the top of the sky then suddenly stopped in motion near the bottom of the sky.''

Mr Scott managed to snap off four quick images, capturing the action.

Ralph Martin, astronomer at WA's Bickley Observatory, said there had been a second reported sighting of something burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"We had another report this morning from a guy in High Wycombe, who was looking east, who saw something similar at about 5.20am,'' Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin said it appeared to be a "re-entry'' -- some kind of man-made object burning fuel as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

He said it could have been a dying rocket, or some kind of space-junk falling to Earth.

He said it was a relatively slow-moving object, which tended to discount the theory that it was a meteor falling to Earth.