English (UK)
An impressive fireball could be observed at 23h00 UT (01h00 Spanish local time) on May 7th on Algeria skies.
This object was registered with the SMART detector’s cameras operated at Calar Alto (Almería), La Hita (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada), Sierra Nevada (Granada), Ayora (Valencia) and Seville observatories.
Some of the external cameras at Calar Alto Observatory also followed this spectacular event.
Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), PI of the SMART Project did the preliminary analysis. His conclusions are:
Type of event: Cometary- Initial Speed: 61.000 km/h
- Initial Altitude: 81 km
- Final Altitude: 44 km
As showed in the picture, this fireball crossed Algeria’s skies with several huge explosions. This are the typical explosions when a cometary fragment enters our atmosphere. The high content of volatile materials produces this behaviour.
However, despite these impressive explosions, the meteor has not produced meteorites.
Below are the images from the external cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.
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.
