Very bright fireball above Jaén province (South Spain) on February 14th.

Last February 14 evening, the skies of Jaén province, in southern Spain, have witnessed a new bright fireball that happened at 20h59 UT just in between the cities of Jaén and Úbeda.

SMART Project’s detectors operated at Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), Huelva, El Aljarafe, Seville and La Hita (Toledo), registered this event.

Calar Alto Observatory in Almería also could follow this object with its external cameras.

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 a cometary origin, and was caused by a rock which impacted against our atmosphere at an estimated speed of 54.000 km/h.

The luminous part of the phenomena started northeast Jaén city at an altitude of 82 km. Then the object moved southeastward between Jaén and Úbeda cities, and finished at an altitude of 48 km above the ground.

The image above shows the path this fireball followed above Jaén province.

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.