Australia's big media company debunks own meteor story

Australian news giant Nine Entertainment faced ridicule after initially reporting a meteor sighting in Melbourne, only to later debunk the claim.

Meteor 'shower' turns out to be airplane contrail

The video, aired on Nine's Today show, showed a bright light streaking across the sky, sparking speculation on social media that it could be space junk re-entering the atmosphere or part of the Lyrid meteor shower.

However, an observational astronomer at Monash University, Michael Brown, told Weekly Beast that the footage clearly depicts an airplane contrail, not a meteor.

'It could have been debunked if they had contacted an astronomer (be it a professional or a dedicated amateur) but this obviously did not happen,' Brown said.

The videos were eventually removed from Nine's websites after being flagged by Weekly Beast, with a spokesperson stating, 'Thanks for flagging this. The story has been taken down.'