fireball
On 3 October 2021, at 21:41h local time, this stunning fireball was observed by a wide number of eyewitnesses over the south of Spain. This bolide was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from Comet D / 1978 R1 (Haneda-Campos) that hit the atmosphere at about 54,000 km / h. The fireball overflew the province of Granada (Andalusia).

It began over the east of that province at an altitude of about 81 km, moved northwest, and ended at a height of around 34 km over the north of the same province. This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from different meteor-observing stations located in Spain.

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).21:41(local peninsular time) on October 3, this impressive ball of fire could be seen by crowds of people crossing the skies of the south and the center of the country.

This fireball was produced when a rock (a meteoroid) from Comet D / 1978 R1 (Haneda-Campos) entered the Earth's atmosphere at high speed. The fireball was recorded by the detectors operated by the Southwestern Europe Fireball and Meteor Network (SWEMN network) at the La Sagra (Granada), La Hita (Toledo), Seville and Sierra Nevada (Granada) observatories. From this last observatory the bolide was recorded between the clouds with a brightness similar to that of the full Moon.

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.

This phenomenon has been analyzed by the researcher in charge of the SMART Project, the astrophysicist José María Madiedo from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC). This analysis has made it possible to determine that the rock that originated this fireball entered the atmosphere at about 54 thousand kilometers per hour over the east of the province of Granada, near the vertical of the town of Alcudia de Guadix.

Due to this high speed, the sudden friction with the air made the rock turn incandescent when it was at an altitude of about 81 km. From there the fireball advanced in a northwesterly direction, showing several explosions along its trajectory. It finally became extinct when it was at an altitude of about 34 kilometers, near the vertical of the Granada town of Alicún de Ortega.