Fireball above Cuenca province (mid-east Spain) on August 18th 2021


pathAt 00h20 UT of August 18th  2021, a bright fireball could be seeing above Cuenca province (middle-east of Spain).  

This object was registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), El Arenosillo (Huelva), La Hita (Toledo) and Seville 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 cometary origin, and was caused by a rock which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 90.000 km/h.

The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 104 km above the ground. Then the object moved southeastward and finished at an altitude of 67 km. All the path this fireball followed above the ground was within Cuenca province, as it is shown on the image.

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.