Unless a meteorite has quite a bit of mass, it would *not* be travelling in a straight line like that. I don't know what size limit is, but I believe that a meteorite smaller than a football will decelerate to its natural terminal velocity, which is sub-sonic, and which will *not* cause an explosion on impact.

Although I know it defies all reasonable laws of statistics, I've been lucky enough to see two meteorite strikes. The more recent was in the early '90s, near Santa Margarita, CA. It a small bolide, which fragmented in several bright bursts. Most of the pieces faded out quickly, but two of them were still glowing dull red when they landed in a field about half a mile away. By that time, they were being blown by the wind, and were obviously very small and light -- I'd be surprised if they were any larger than peanuts. Between first spotting the bolide and watching the fragments touch down in the field, I'd say perhaps 30 seconds had elapsed.

The earlier meteorite was far weirder. It was in the early 80's, and my father and I were driving west on a freeway in San Jose. It was bright orange, and took less than two seconds between piercing a layer of cirrus clouds and striking a valley in the Santa Cruz mountains (I'd guess somewhere around the Lexington resivoir). It produced a bright flash on impact, which briefly illuminated the far side of the valley. Very dramatic. My father and I were certain that it would be in the papers the next day, but it never was. I've wondered if perhaps it was actually a fragment of something classified, and was hushed up.

In any case, if this Aussie's "meteorite" had been big enough to travel in a straight line and produce an explosion on impact, it would have been big enough to create a lot of light and a hell of a sonic boom. If it was "no bigger than a grain of sand," it would have been small and drifty. Neither scenario fits this photo.