English (UK)
Last August 3rd at dusk, a nice and long Perseid flew above Castilla La Mancha and Andalucía skies.
This fireball could be registered with the SMART Project’s detector operated at Calar Alto (Almería), La Sagra (Granada), La Hita (Toledo), Madrid and Seville observatories.
Two Calar Alto Observatory external surveillance webcams also recorded this event.
Following the preliminary analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC), and SMART project's PI, At 19h59 UT of August 3rd, a rock detached from comet Swift-Tuttle impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 212,000 km/h.
The luminous part of the phenomena started at an altitude of 130 km above the center of Castilla La Mancha region. Then the object moved southwestward and finished at an altitude of 78 km above the ground of Andalucía region.
The left image shows the path this fireball followed above the ground.
Below are the videos that could be registered with the two external surveillance cameras operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería (South Spain).
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.
