FIERBALL
On 15 September 2021, at 22:25 local time (equivalent to 20:25universal time), a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid impacted the atmosphere at about 76,000 km / h over the south of Spain.

The high temperature reached during its atmospheric entry gave rise to a fireball that began at a height of around 91 km over the province of Badajoz. The fireball moved northwest and ended at a height of about 22 km above the same province.

The bolide was seen by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses along the country. The preliminary analysis of this event shows that the rock was not fully destroyed: a small part of the object could survive and reach the ground as a meteorite. The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from the meteor-observing stations located at the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra, La Hita, and Sevilla.

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).


September 15 at 22:25Spanish peninsular local time, a rock from an asteroid hit the atmosphere at about 76 thousand km / h over the south of the country. These types of rocks are called "meteoroids". As a consequence of this enormous speed, the rock became incandescent, generating a fireball that crossed the night sky.

Its luminosity, equivalent to that of the full Moon, made it able to be seen from more than 600 km away. Many people were able to contemplate this phenomenon, which was especially spectacular in the skies of Seville, Huelva, Córdoba and Extremadura. In fact, the fireball started over the south of the province of Badajoz, at an altitude of about 91 km. From there he advanced in a northwesterly direction, extinguishing at an altitude of about 22 km on a point located near the vertical of the town of La Albuera (Badajoz).

Throughout its trajectory it showed several explosions that caused sudden increases in its luminosity and that were due to various abrupt ruptures of the rock. Preliminary analysis of the event indicates that the rock was not completely destroyed in the atmosphere: a small part of it would have survived, falling to the ground in the form of a meteorite.

The phenomenon was recorded by the detectors of the Southwest Europe Fireball and Meteor Network (SWEMN Network) from the Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra, La Hita and Seville observatories. And also from the detection station operated by Dr. Jaime Izquierdo in Madrid (Complutense University). These detectors work within the framework of the SMART Project, which is coordinated by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) with the aim of continuously monitoring the sky to record and study the impact against the earth's atmosphere of rocks from different objects in the Solar System.