English (UK)
Last night of May 18th 2024, at 22h46 UT, a really big fireball crossed skies of Spain and Portugal.
This object was registered with the SMART Project’s detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita (Toledo), Huelva, Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla and Marçà (Tarragona) observatories.
Two of the external cameras located at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería also could follow this spectacular event.
Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), PI of SMART Project, this object had a cometary origin, entering in our atmosphere at a speed of 161.000 km/h. The initial altitude of the luminous part of the event was of 122 km, finishing at an altitude of 54 km.
The videos registered with the two external cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería are below.
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.