English (UK)
During the first half of July, a couple of fireballs have crossed the skies of southern Spain.
The fist one took place on July 3rd at 02h29 UT, while the second meteor happened on July 12th at 00h43 UT
Both of them have been registered with SMART Project’s detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada) and Sevilla. The one at July 3rd, was also registered with the detectors at Ayora, and Olocau in Valencia.
Calar Alto external cameras could as well follow the two fireballs.
The preliminary analysis of these events were carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), PI of the SMART Project.
His conclusions and the videos registered at Calar Alto Observatory (Almería) are below.
Fireball on July 3rd:
- Type of event: cometary
- Initial speed: 69.000 km/h
- Initial altitude: 87 km
- Final altitude: 33km
Fireball on July 12th:
- Type of event: asteroidal
- Initial speed: 45.000 km/h
- Initial altitude: 80 km
- Final altitude: 32 km
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.