Impressive fireball flew above South Spain and South Portugal skies on November 16th

At 02h49 UT (03h49 local time) of November 16th 2020, a bright fireball soared through the skies of the southern Iberian Peninsula.

This object could be registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Seville and La Hita (Toledo) observatories.

The West external surveillance camera located at Calar Alto Observatory could also detect this phenomena.

Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), this object has a cometary origin. A rock detached from a comet impacted against our atmosphere a an estimated speed of about 227.000 km/h.

The luminous phase of the event started at an altitude of 123 km at the Southwest part of the Spain, moving then northwestward and entering into Portugal, and finishing at an altitude of 61 km above Portugal.

The image shows the path this fireball followed above the ground.

Below are the two videos that could be registered from Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, the first one recorded with the West external surveillance camera and the second one with the SMART detector.

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.