Bright fireball above Badajoz province on September 15th 2021


pathAt 20h25 UT of September 15th 2021, a bright fireball could be seeing above Badajoz province (Extremadura, southwest of Spain).

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

This time, two of the external surveillance webcams operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, also recorded the nice event.

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 had an asteroidal origin, and was caused by a fragment which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 76.000 km/h.

The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 91 km above Badajoz province. Then the object moved northwestward and finished at an altitude of 22 km above the same province.

The above image shows the path this fireball followed above the Badajoz (southwest Spain).

Below are the videos that could be registered with the two external surveillance cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería (South Spain).

 


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.