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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian authorities were baffled on
Wednesday by overnight reports of bright lights and booming
noises in the sky which shook some houses and prompted fears
of falling space junk or meteorites. Police said they received
numerous reports of "explosions in the sky, sonic boom-type
noises and flare-type lights" over a two hour period
on Tuesday night from residents along a 124 mile stretch
of the country"s east coast. "There was a huge
bang which shook my house," one resident of Bateman"s
Bay, 177 miles south of Sydney, told Australian Broadcasting
Corp radio. "I thought the house next door had blown
up," he said. Police said they had contacted meteorology,
air safety, emergency, and defense experts, but were unable
to come up with any official reason behind the unusual night
sky action. A number of small grass fires were also sparked
around the nearby capital of Canberra at about the same
time, they said. "No debris has been found," a
police spokesman told Reuters. The noise and lights prompted
fears the accident prone Mir Space station could be making
an uncontrolled return to earth after Russian space officials
lost contact with the 130-ton craft for 24 hours until late
on Tuesday. The craft, which remains safe in orbit, is to
be dumped in the Pacific Ocean, 900 to 1,200 miles off Australia,
in late February. Australia"s Deep Space Communications
Complex said a small meteorite was the most likely explanation
for the sightings. "That would cause a sonic boom and
would also cause some good flares around it," operations
supervisor Ian Warren told domestic news agency Australian
Associated Press.
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