Fireball above Córdoba and Granada provinces (South Spain) on October 12th 2020


pathLast night a brilliant fireball with spectacular fulgurations flew above South Spain’s skies at 01:59 local time (23:59 UT of October 11th).

This object was registered with SMART Project’s detector operated at Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita  (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada) and Seville observatories.

As the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC) states, this event was caused by a rock detached from a comet that entered our atmosphere at an estimated speed of about 86.000 km/h.

The luminous phenomena started at an altitude of 101 km and finished at 73 km above the ground.

The above image shows the path this object followed.

Below is the video registered by the SMART Project’s detector operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, where the spectacular fulgurations this fireball produced can be perfectly appreciated.


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.