English (UK)
Summer is a good time for observing fireballs above our skies.
Since July 31st, a great amount of these nice objects were seeing crossing the sky. With the Alpha-Capricornids and the Perseids on maximum, our skies are plenty of such fireballs.
Not all of these phenomena can be analyzed. It is impossible.
We will bring the nicest ones to our web page.
Let’s start with the ones from July 31st to August 3rd.
The most impressive one took place on July 31st
The preliminary analysis was carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), PI of the SMART Project. The conclusions are that this first object had an asteroidal origin with a speed of 73.000 km/h
The luminous part of the event started at an altitude of 86 km above Valencia province. The fireball then moved southeastward to finish at an altitude of 49 km above Alicante province.
The top left picture shows the path this object followed above Valencia and Alicante provinces.
This phenomena could be registerd with the SMART Project’s detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Ayora, Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Seville, Sierra Nevada and La Sagra (Granada) observatories.
External cameras from Calar Alto Observatory in Almería also recorded this event.
Two more fireballs has been registered since then. However, at present we still have no information about the second one.
Regarding the last one on August 3rd, the preliminary analysis achieved by Professor Madiedo concludes that it was an Alpha-Capricornid (Comet 169P/NEAT), with a speed of 88.000 km/h that flew above Mediterranean Sea in front of Alicante coast with a initial altitude of 107 km above the Sea and final altitude of 81 km. In this case the SMART detectors which registered the event were located at Calar Alto (Almería), Ayora, La Hita (Toledo), Seville and Sierra Nevada and La Sagra (Granada).
The above image shows the path this fireball followed above Mediterranean Sea.
Below are three photos, two of them of the second fireball, and one of the third one.
And here are the videow that were registered with the external cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.
July 31st 2022
August 1st 2022
August 3rd 2022
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.
