fireball
Our cameras recorded this fireball over Spain on 17 March 2021, at about 6:07 local time (equivalent to 5:07universal time). The bolide was generated by a rock from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 100,000 km / h.

The fireball began at an altitude of about 100 km over the province of Jaén (Andalusia), and ended at a height of around 52 km over the province of Ciudad Real (Castilla-La Mancha). This 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), Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Calar Alto ( Almería), and Madrid (UCM, Jaime Izquierdo).

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).6:07(Spanish peninsular local time) of March 17.


The event has been analyzed by the researcher responsible for the SMART project, astrophysicist José María Madiedo from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía IAA-CSIC. This analysis has made it possible to determine that the rock that originated this phenomenon entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 100 thousand kilometers per hour and came from an asteroid. The sudden friction with the atmosphere at this enormous speed made the rock turn incandescent, thus generating a fireball that began at an altitude of about 100 km above the northwest of the province of Jaén.

It advanced in a northeast direction and became extinct at an altitude of about 52 km when it was almost above the vertical of the town of Villamanrique (Ciudad Real). The fireball traveled a total distance in the atmosphere of about 102 km. This fireball has been registered by the SMART project detectors from the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Seville, La Sagra (Granada), Sierra Nevada, La Hita (Toledo).

It has also been recorded by the detection station located in Madrid (operated by Jaime Izquierdo, Complutense University of Madrid). SMART is a project developed by the Southwest Europe Fireball and Meteor Network (SWEMN Network). It is a research network coordinated by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC). The SWEMN Network aims to continuously monitor the sky in order to record and study the impact against the Earth's atmosphere of rocks from different objects in the Solar System.