New Fireball over the Mediterranean on October 30th

Last night, October 30, at 11:30 p.m., a new and bright fireball with a large final explosion was observed over the Mediterranean Sea.

The detectors of the SMART Project, operated from the Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), and La Sagra (Granada) observatories, registered this object.

Two of the external cameras operated by the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería also witnessed this event, although one of the cameras had significant moisture on the glass, resulting in a video of lower quality than usual.

According to the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia IAA-CSIC), PI of the SMART Project, it was a cometary event.

The luminous part of the event began at an altitude of 108 km and an estimated speed of approximately 107,000 km/h. The object moved northwest, eventually reaching an altitude of 68 km over the Mediterranean Sea.

Below are the two videos recorded by the external cameras of the 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.