English (UK)
SMART Project fireball detectors and Calar Alto South webcam registered on last April 14 a fireball over Andalucía skies (South of Spain). The event took place about 23:15 Spanish local time (21:15 UT). Together with Calar Alto fireball detector station and south surveillance webcam, the fireball could also be recorded from the fireball detection station at Sevilla, La Hita (Toledo) and Sierra Nevada observatories.
The preliminary analysis carried out by SMART Project PI, Professor José María Madiedo (University of Huelva), showed that this event happened due to the impact against our atmosphere of a meteoroid detached from a comet. The object hit the atmosphere at about 70.000 km/h. The fireball started at an altitude of about 85 km above the Mediterranean Sea just in front of Almería's coast. The luminous phenomena moved then southwestward and finished over the sea at about 33 Km above the sea.
The first image above shows the firebal together with the emission spectrum, while the second shows the path followed by this object over Mediterranean Sea.
Below are the videos taken from the Calar Alto Observatory fireball detection station and the surveillance south webcam, where the 3.5 meter telescope can be appreciated very well.
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 (University of Huelva) to track that kind of objects. Specifically, Calar Alto (CAHA) station and the one at Sierra Nevada (IAA-CSIC) constitute a collaboration agreement between Professor Madiedo and both institutions.