English (UK)
The first fireball registered on 2020 happened above southwest Spain.
Last midnight, at 23:08 UT (00:08 localtime of January 29th), a bright fireball could be registered with the SMART's detectors located at Calar Alto (Almería), La Sagra (Granada) and Seville observatories.
This event could also be recorded with one of the surveillance webcams operated at Calar Alto Observatory in Almería.
Following the preliminar analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo, SMART Project's PI (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC) this nice fireball was produced by a rock detached from an asteroid which impacts against our atmosphere at a speed of about 61.000 km/h at an initial altitude of 61 km above the ground. The object then moved northward starting on Cádiz province (south Spain) skies and finishing at an altitude of 20 km above Seville province.
The path this object followed above the ground is shown on the above left image.
Below are the videos that could be registered with the west SMART detector and the west surveillance webcam, both operated at Calar Alto Observatory.
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.
