fireball
This stunning bolide was spotted over Spain on January 14, at 22:27 local time (equivalent to 21:27universal time). It was almost as bright as the full Moon. The fireball was observed by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses, who reported it on social networks. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 48,000 km/h.

The fireball overflew south of Spain. It began at an altitude of about 86 km over southwest of the province of Ciudad Real (region of Castilla-La Mancha), moved east, and ended at a height of around 23 km over the same province. The preliminary analysis of this event shows that the rock was not fully destroyed in the atmosphere: a small part of the meteoroid survived and reached the ground as a meteorite.

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 Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, Sevilla, La Sagra (Granada), Huelva, El Aljarafe, Madrid (Universidad Complutense), and La Hita (Toledo). The event has been analyzed by the main investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).