Fireball on July 25th over Mediterranean Sea


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About 0:18 local time of July 26th (22:18 of July 25th UT), SMART Project’s detectors registered a fireball over Mediterranean Sea. This event which could be observed from Calar Alto, La Sagra and Sevilla observatories, was also recorded by two of the Calar Alto Observatory surveillance webcams, and the luminous phenomena last nearly 9 seconds.

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Following the analysis carried out by the SMART Project’s PI, Professor José María Madiedo (University of Huelva), this fireball was generated due to the impact against the atmosphere of a meteoroid detached from an asteroid. The fireball started at an altitude of about 83 km and it finished at an altitude of about 36 km over the Mediterranean Sea level.

On the left image you can see the path over the sea this object followed. And on the top image, some of the emission spectrum lines can be appreciated.

Below are the videos recorded with both the SMART east detector and with the Calar Alto Observatory surveillance webcams.

 Note: The bright light that can be observed at the end of the above video is a car coming.

 


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.