A large beaming object, believed to be space junk, has lit up Melbourne’s sky overnight.

Victorians captured videos which appeared to show a bright fireball traveling through the sky at about midnight on Monday.

Many social media posts have indicated that the “meteor” like object could be viewed from Melbourne’s CBD, as well as outer suburbs like Sunbury and Mornington.

Residents spanning as far as Geelong and Bendigo have also reported seeing the object.

Speaking to 3AW Radio Swinburne University astronomer, Professor Alan Duffy recalls the event as being quite a remarkable sight.

“It was the biggest light show that I’ve ever seen, in terms of a re-entry of some kind of material from orbit,” he said.

Professor Duffy believes the streak of light was likely just a piece of space junk, rather than a meteor or comet.

Many residents woke to a startling bang in the late hours of Monday night, before seeing the object shooting across the sky.

“I wonder if that was the cause of the mysterious bang we had here,” one person wrote on Facebook. “It was sort of like the start of a quake with window rattle but, no ground shake or extended time. Actually, scared me.”

Many people recalled the sight as stunning to witness.

“I was absolutely gobsmacked and mesmerised. I couldn’t take my eyes off it,” one person wrote.

Duffy said astronomers would use an app to try and identify what exactly happened, the path and where the space junk had landed.

“I’m going right now on the official website where this stuff is tracked, and I cannot find what this thing was. Some reports have indicated that it had headed out to sea.”

Photo: Debris-GEO1280 by NASA image available HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has not been modified.