Bright fireball on July 23rd 2018 in front of Granada and Málaga (South Spain) coasts


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At 20:22 UT (22:22 Local time) of July 23rd 2018, a bright fireball could be observed in front of the coasts of Málaga and Granada (South Spain). This event was registerd from the SMART Project's detectors operated at Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada) and Sevilla observatories. Although the object passed through a dead angle of SMART's detectors located at Calar Alto Observatory (Almería), so it couldn't be registered with them, the fireball was registered by the south external surveillance webcam this observatory operates.

The preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (University of Huelva), PI of the SMART Project, reveals this fireball was caused by a rock detached from an asteriod impacting against the Earth atmosphere at a estimated speed of about 61.000 km/h. 

The initial altitude of the fireball was about 89 km above the Mediterranean Sea, just in front of Granada's coasts (South Spain). The object moved then southwestward and finished at an altitude of about 37 km above the sea level, in the limit between Granada and Malaga coasts. 

Below is the video that could be recorded with the Calar Alto Observatory south external surveillance webcam.

 


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.