Meteor streaks across the night sky in Victoria

Victorians across the state were stunned to see a meteor fly over the night sky on Sunday.

Dash cam and CCTV footage in places such as Bendigo, Ballarat and the western fringes of Melbourne caught a glimpse of the rare and stunning sight, with some on social media reporting they felt the ground shake.

The fireball was visible at around 8pm yesterday and came ahead of the expected peak of the Perseids meteor shower tomorrow.

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However, astronomers believe last night's cosmic event was unrelated to Perseids.

"This would be what's called a 'sporadic meteor', which refers to all meteors we see with a non-specific origin," Perry Vlahos told The Age.

"The reason it's not a Perseid is because the 'radiant' – the point the meteors appear to radiate out from – never rises above the horizon for us at the latitude of Victoria."

However, another expert who spoke to The Age outlined why the event could be an exciting one if reports of fragments falling to the ground in places like Bendigo and Ballarat are true.

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"That is unusual and actually quite exciting, as if those reports are accurate, probably what they were hearing was a sonic boom from the meteor," Michael Brown from Monash University said.

"To be able to hear the sonic boom loudly from the ground suggests that quite a big chunk of the meteor was pretty close to the ground.

"And that possibly means there's chunks of the meteorite actually made it down to the ground and optimistically, might be found."

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