fireball
This stunning bolide was spotted over Spain on April 2, at 21:28 local time (equivalent to 19:28 universal time). It was brighter than 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 49,000 km/h. The fireball overflew Madrid and Toledo (Spain). It began at an altitude of about 88 km over the locality of Torrejón de Velasco (Madrid), moved southwest, and ended at a height of around 24 km over Argés (province of Toledo).


The preliminary analysis of this event shows that the rock was not fully destroyed: a 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 Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, and El Aljarafe (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).