Fireball towards the north of the province of Albacete in southern Spain

On the night of September 26, at 00:39 UT, a beautiful fireball crossed the skies over the northern province of Albacete in southern Spain.

The detectors that the SMART Project are operating at the observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), Otura (Granada), Huelva, Olocau (Valencia), Faro de Cullera (Valencia) and Seville, registered this event.

Three of the external cameras located at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, also followed this nice object.

The the preliminary analysis of Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), PI of the SMART Proyect, concludes that this event was caused due to the entrance into our atmosphere of a detached rock from a comet at an estimated speed of 98.000 km/h. The luminous part of the event started at an altitude of 102 km above the north of the province of Albacete (southeast Spain). The object then moved northeastward and finished at an altitude of 71 km above the same province of Albacete.

Below are the videos that were registered with the external cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.

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.