On July 7th, a massive fireball was seen shooting over the sky of New Zealand; it was probably a piece of a meteor that crashed into the water.
A meteor was spotted in the sky over Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand’s North Island and South Island, during the daytime hours on July 7th, 2022.
Witnesses described the meteor as a “giant bright orange fireball” that produced a “trail of smoke that hung around for a few minutes.” The fireball is presumed to have been caused by a small meteor, up to a few meters wide, that fragmented in the atmosphere, producing a sonic boom as it exploded with the power of 1,800 metric tonnes of TNT.
GeoNet, a network of seismometers meant to detect earthquakes, picked up the shock wave caused by the meteor fragmentation and recorded the resulting sound waves. Satellites that track lightning worldwide captured a dazzling flash of light that was also created by the occurrence. The asteroid most certainly broke up over the ocean, therefore it's unlikely that any pieces can be recovered.