English (UK)
On the evening of January 18th, at 18h20 UT, a fireball flew above the Mediterranean Sea, just in front of Almería (South Spain) coasts.
This object was registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), Huelva and Seville observatories.
Again, one of the external cameras of Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, also recorded this phenomena.
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 was caused by a rock detached from an asteroid which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 50.000 km/h.
The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 78 km above Mediterranean Sea, just in front of Almería province. Then the object moved southeastward and finished at an altitude of 29 km above the sea.
The image above shows the path this fireball followed above the Mediterranean Sea.
Below is the video from the external camera operated at Calar Alto Observatory.
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.
