Nine News had exciting news for Melbourne residents: a video showing a falling meteor lighting up the sky.

The video of the “meteor shower” broadcast on the Today show featured a bright light streaking through the sky which the newsreader said was “leaving locals scratching their heads as to what it could be”.

“Some took to social media to speculate whether it’s space junk, re-entering the atmosphere,” newsreader Lizzie Pearl said.

“However, the Lyrid meteor shower is the most likely answer, most visible across Victoria until the 25th of this month.”

The video was picked up by Nine Entertainment’s news websites for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald with the headline “Meteor lights up Melbourne sky”.

But if only Australia’s biggest media company had asked one of its more than 500 reporters to pick up the phone and ask an astronomer to confirm if it was indeed a meteor.

Observational astronomer Michael Brown from Monash University told Weekly Beast it appeared Nine had picked the video up from social media posts, where it was circulating as a meteor sighting on Sunday. “The problem is this is clearly not a meteor but an airplane contrail,” Brown told Weekly Beast.

“This could have been debunked if they had contacted an astronomer (be it a professional or a dedicated amateur) but this obviously did not happen.

“There’s been an increasing number of posts of weather and astronomy groups with photos or........

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