Nice fireball on September 4th on southeast Spain


pathOn September 4th 2020 at 21:36 UT (23:36 local time) a nice fireball flew above north Almería and south Murcia  (southeast Spain) skies.

The object could be registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), La Sagra (Granada), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Hita (Toledo) and Seville observatories.

This phenomena could also be recorded with two of the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería) surveillance webcams.

Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), the fireball was caused by a rock detached from an asteroid that impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 47.000 km/h.

The luminous part of the event started at an altitude of 78 km above the north of Almería province. Then it moved northeastward, and finished at an altitude of 38 km.

Below are the videos from the Calar Alto Observatory surveillance webcams.

 

 


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.