Central North Island residents were wowed by a fireball soaring through the sky on Sunday.
The fireball was seen from Auckland, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, and the Waikato.
At 9.12 pm the fireball was seen with many also reporting hearing a loud 'sonic boom' as it flew overhead.
Fireballs Aotearoa representative Steve Wyn-Harris said it's an event that only happens a couple of times a year, and it's crucial to document it.
"They've been in a deep freeze vacuum for 4.5 billion years and if you get them fresh, it can tell us a lot about how the solar system formed, what's been going on since, the meaning of life. Stuff like that."
Fireball Aotearoa works in conjunction with The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand and has 110 cameras tracking these events across the country.
Sunday's fireball was just captured in time; however, the full scope of the event could be much larger than captured.
Wyn-Harris said the fireball may have dropped meteorites on the ground.
This could provide even greater insight if captured and studied, which is why the team is asking Kiwis to check their cameras and send in any footage they may have captured of the fireball.
Some people took to social media to share their view of the fireball, with one user capturing the groundbreaking moment it flew overhead.
They are urging anyone with security cameras or CCTV to check their footage from 9.10pm to 9.15pm on Sunday, to see if it picked up any of the action.
