November 28, 2004
Meteorite Photographed Hitting Earth
The chances of an impact being captured on film are millions to one.
The photograph was taken by keen amateur photographer Wayne Pryde as he stood near the Darwin Cenotaph on The Esplanade and looked down to Fort Hill Wharf on Monday evening. (Northern Territories, Australia)
The meteorite, which could have been as small as a grain of sand, would have been travelling about 30,000km/h.
Mr Pryde believes a tiny piece of space rock hit the top of a 20m lamp post on the wharf.
He said the explosion on impact could be seen clearly in the photograph.
The "tube" created by the meteorite as it hurtled towards Earth is harder to pick out.
"I was taking a series of time-lapse pictures of the build-up of clouds," Mr Pryde said.
"I did not realise I had snapped the meteorite until later.