English (UK)
In October 4th 2022, at 19h04 UT (21h04 Spanish local time), a bright fireball that had a long duration, flew above south west coast of Spain, just in front of Cádiz (Andalusia – South Spain).
This object was registered with the SMART Project’s detector operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada) and Seville observatories.
Two of the external cameras located at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, could also follow this 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 phenomena had an asteroidal origin with a speed of 69.000 km/h
The luminous part of the event started at an altitude of 84 km above the Strait of Gibraltar. The fireball moved then northwestward, passing in front of Cádiz coasts and finished above the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 44 km.
The above image shows the path this object followed above the Atlantic Ocean.
In the videos recorded by the external cameras of the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, shown below, you can clearly see the haze that was over the skies of Andalusia at that time. Despite of this, and the long distance of Gulf of Cádiz and Almería, this fireball was observed perfectly from Calar Alto Observatory.
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.
