At approximately 9.22pm, the extraordinary scene unfolded, leaving onlookers from Barcaldine in the state's far west to Cooktown in the far north spellbound, as the celestial visitor painted the night sky with its vibrant display.

In gripping footage capturing the event, the meteor pierced through the atmosphere, leaving a radiant green tail in its wake.

Then, in a breathtaking display of cosmic fireworks, it plummeted towards the earth, erupting in an explosion of light and resonating with a sonic boom.

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Professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University, Richard de Grijs, shed light on the stunning phenomenon.

"The colour of the fireball has to do with chemistry," he said.

"In this case, I'd say the green colour that you see has to do with nickel burning up in the atmosphere, but copper and iron is also possible because they also burn green."

He said the meteor seen on the weekend was a rogue meteor, as it was not part of a cometary tail.

"At certain times of the year we have meteor showers, and that's because the earth's orbit goes through the remnants of a comet," he said.

"The last meteor show peaked on May 6 and 7; that was the remnants of Haley's Comet, which last crossed the earth's orbit in 1986.

"The vast majority of meteors are really small, the one we same this weekend I understand was a fireball perhaps one metre across, which is a bit bigger than what we usually see, but nowhere near the size which would cause some concern."