A meteor lit up the sky in Victoria’s West last night, creating a rare “sonic boom” effect.

Just after 7:30 pm, multiple posts appeared across social media showing a large fireball cutting through the night sky.

ABC radio listener Andrew, who was in Port Melbourne at that time, described it as a large bright red object.

“We actually thought someone played a joke by, I don’t know, setting fire to something and throwing it over our heads or something like that,” he told the ABC.

Sue from North-West Melbourne told the ABC she heard a “terrific thump”.

“The house seemed to lift up and drop down again,” she said.

Other residents compared it to an explosion or an earthquake.

Geoscience Australia said it received reports from Bendigo but hadn’t recorded any seismic activity at the time.

A sonic boom is an effect that occurs when an object exceeds the speed of sound. Monash University’s school of physics and astronomy Associate Professor Michael Brown told the ABC it’s rare for a meteor to be heard. He suggests that it could mean that it was big enough for some pieces to make it to the ground and that they could be found.

“People should be a little bit careful going hunting for meteorites unless they know exactly what they’re looking for because there’s a lot of rocks out there in Victoria,” he said.

However, astronomer Perry Vlahos told the Age there’s no evidence that any part of the object hit the ground.

“It burns out in the sky, way before hitting the ground, so it won’t be a meteorite [a meteor that has hit the ground],” he said.

He also said that this meteor wasn’t part of any meteor shower, like the Perseids one that will have its peak between August 12-13.

Photo: Meteor Shower by Bill Ingalls (NASA) found HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has not been modified.