Bright fireball above Córdoba province in South Spain on June 2nd 2021


interior trailspathLast night, at 02h12 UT a bright fireball crossed the skies of Córdoba province in South Spain.

This object was registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), La Hita (Toledo), Seville and Madrid observatories.

As it happened in other occasions, this fireball could be also registered with one of the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería) external surveillance webcams.

Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), and SMART project's PI, this event had cometary origin, and was caused by a rock which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 183.000 km/h.

The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 111 km above Córdoba province in South Spain. Then the object moved southwestward and finished at an altitude of 83 km above the ground.

The top left image shows the stacked frames of the fireball with the emission spectrum, while the top right one shows the path this fireball followed above Córdoba province.

Below are the videos that could be registered with the external surveillance west camera and the SMART's detector, both operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería (South Spain).

 


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 (IAA) to track that kind of objects. Specifically, Calar Alto (CAHA) station and the one at Sierra Nevada (IAA-CSIC) constitute a collaboration agreement between the IAA researcher José María Madiedo and both institutions.