English (UK)
August 10th 2021
At 00:55 UT of August 10th, a bright fireball could be seeing above Castilla La Mancha. This phenomena has been registered with the SMART Project's detectors operated at La Sagra and Sierra Nevada in Granada, La Hita in Toledo and Seville as well as it was registered with the North and Northwest surveillance cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.
Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), and SMART project's PI, this event had an cometary origin, and was caused by a rock which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 50.000 km/h.
The image shows the path this fireball followed between Ciudad Real and Albacete provinces (Castilla La Mancha). The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 80 km on the skies of Ciudad Real. Then the object moved northeastward and finished over Albacete province at an altitude of 45 km above the ground.
Below are the videos registered with the Calar Alto Observatory external surveillance cameras.
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.
