English (UK)
Three fireballs could be observed during the night of November 6th to 7th, 2015. All of the three fireballs that could be observed, were produced by the impact of detached fragments of the Encke comet against our atmosphere. First impact took place at 20:49 UT of November 6th, second one could be observed at 23:16 UT of the same day and the last one, in November 7th, happened at 00:54 UT.
All of them were registered by the instruments held by the Universidad of Huelva at Calar Alto, La Hita, La Pedriza and Sevilla observatories, in collaboration with the institutions that operate those observatories. These fireballs were also observed with Calar Alto Observatory webcams. The third one, could be seen with Calar Alto south surveillance webcam.
The three objects have been analyzed by Professor José María Madiedo, the project PI. Preliminary calculations point that the first impact happened at about 110 km above the ground over north of Africa. This fragment penetrated into our atmosphere about 50 km, traveling at a speed higher than 100.000 km/h
The second fireball flew over the central part of Andalucía (south Spain), starting at about 106 km of height over the south of Córdoba province. The object was totally destroyed when it was about 60 km over the vertical of Montilla village.
The last one was similar to the other two. It happened at about of 100 km above the sea level between Morocco and Andalucía (south Spain) coasts, and with a speed of more than 100.000 km/h
Below are the three videos taken from Calar Alto surveillance south and west webcams, and the last one recorded with the south camera of the Calar Alto fireball detection station.
Calar Alto (CAHA) fireball detection station, together with the one at the Observatory of Sierra Nevada (IAA-CSIC) and others placed at different locations in Spain, are part of the S.M.A.R.T. project led by Professor José María Madiedo (University of Huelva) to track that kind of objects. Specifically, Calar Alto (CAHA) station and the one at Sierra Nevada (IAA-CSIC) constitute a collaboration agreement between Professor Madiedo and both institutions.