Fireball crosses off the Costa de la Luz on November 19

Last night, November 19, at 20:52 UT, a new fireball was observed off the Costa de la Luz.

The detectors of the SMART Project, operated from the Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), and Huelva observatories, recorded this object.

Some of the external cameras operated by the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería also witnessed the event; the humidity that night caused the videos to lack the usual quality we’ve come to expect.

According to the preliminary analysis by Professor José María Madiedo (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, IAA-CSIC), Principal Investigator of the SMART Project, it was a cometary event.

The luminous phase began at an altitude of 88 km and at an estimated speed of about 100,000 km/h. The object traveled northwest until ending at an altitude of 42 km above the Atlantic Ocean.

Below are the two videos recorded by the external cameras of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.

La estación de detección de bólidos de Calar Alto (CAHA) , junto con la estación que el Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) tiene en Sierra Nevada, y otras situadas en diferentes puntos de España, forman parte del proyecto S.M.A.R.T. liderado por el investigador José María Madiedo, del IAA, para el seguimiento de este tipo de objetos. En concreto, la estación de Calar Alto (CAHA) y la del IAA en Sierra Nevada, es un acuerdo de colaboración entre el Profesor Madiedo y ambas instituciones.