Bolide over southern Spain
© YouTube/meteors (screen capture)
On 16 November 2020, at about 3:49 local time, a beautiful and very bright fireball was spotted over the south of Spain. This bolide was generated by a rock from a comet that hit the atmosphere at about 227,000 km/h. The fireball began at an altitude of about 132 km over Andalusia (south of Spain), and ended at a height of around 61 km over the south of Portugal.

This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, La Hita (Toledo) and Calar Alto (Almería). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).