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© NASAFile photo from 2013
The bright light that streaked across the sky above Coffs Harbour early on Saturday morning was probably a piece of space junk crashing back to Earth, astronomy groups say. The mysterious light blazed up at about 2:10am and was witnessed by sky-watchers across the Coffs Coast, with reports also recorded as far south as Newcastle.

Coincidentally, the sighting came as Asteroid 86666 was due to skim past Earth - one of the biggest asteroids to pass our planet in recent times.

But the bright lights were no meteor, according to Roberto Cornale of the Coffs Harbour Astronomical Society, who said the occurrence was probably due to space junk falling to earth. "The cause was likely space debris which was breaking up as it entered the atmosphere," Mr Cornale said. "It's a reasonably common occurrence and not too surprising considering the amount of man-made rubbish that is circling Earth."


Comment: Right, but the amount of man-made debris up there is DWARFED by the amount of space rocks in the near-Earth environment. Thus it is FAR more likely that people saw another meteor fireball.


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