Massive fireball and sonic boom creates shock waves across the Wheatbelt

Sunday night’s fireball and sonic boom has been described as sounding like “someone’s meth lab just blew up”, with experts crediting the loud boom to a small piece of asteroid hitting the atmosphere.

Experts from Curtin University’s Desert Fireball Network told the ABC the fireball — reported east of Perth at 8.09pm on Sunday — said the sonic boom was so loud the sound would have been heard as far as 50km from the fireball.

"Sonic booms are quite common for rocks that make it quite deep in the atmosphere," Dr Hadrien Devillepoix told the ABC.

"They pack a big punch and create a kind of shock wave. That's what people hear.”

He said the fireball, which was was expected to have travelled at about 10-20 kilometres per second, would have most likely landed to the east of Perth.

"Not many people actually saw the fireball directly.

"We got it on one camera — all the way down in Katanning in the Wheatbelt."

Residents from Chidlow told the ABC it sounded like “something was blowing up”.

“It was loud enough for us to sit, look at each other, and look outside to see what it was,” Tony Ettridge said.

“We thought, jokingly, 'someone's meth lab just blew up'.”