Watch: Football-sized meteor explodes over Australia

A meteor that lit up the skies over Tasmania on Friday night was caught on video on a driver's dashcam.

YouTube user Adam Y uploaded the footage to YouTube, where it's since been viewed nearly 20,000 times, and Facebook, where it's been seen more than 100,000 times. 

"Mum thought it was fireworks lol," he wrote.

The explosion could be seen not just over Tasmania but on the mainland. Monica Campo saw it from near Melbourne, Victoria.

"I thought it was weird lightning but the colours were amazing," she told ABC News.

"I saw it very clearly, a bright green light with a tail of light travelling towards the bay and then a bright flash," added Jane Nuthall of Chelsea, Victoria.

Queen Victoria Museum's Planetarium astronomer Martin George said the asteroid may only have been about the size of a football, and 20 to 30km in the air when it blew up due to the heat caused by friction.

"We are certainly talking about a significant event, something that we don't often see," he told ABC News. "They are impossible to predict. You really have to be lucky to be outside at the right moment."

Another astronomer said it may even have been as small as a tennis ball. 

"You do get the occasional odd meteor that burns a little more brightly than others and actually melts as it comes through the sky," David Reneke said, recommending people keep their cameras turned towards the skies.

"There could be more, you never know. You may go out and be lucky enough to see another one."

Newshub.