Fireball zooms over Andalucia at 82,000km/h

Fireball zooms over Andalucia at 82,000km/h

According to Jose Maria Madiedo from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), another impressive fireball was recorded at around 11.30pm last night, Sunday, November 7. It was detected by the sensors of the Smart project, which registered this huge ball of fire crossing the southern part of Andalucia at a speed of approximately 82,000km/h.

Mr Madiedo is the main researcher of the Smart project. He explained that this fiery phenomenon would have been produced when a rock from an asteroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. Sudden friction as it enters and mixes with the air at such a high speed, causes the rock to become incandescent.

The trail of fire started just above the Jaen municipality of Bobadilla, he added, at a height of around 92km. It then continued its journey in a northwesterly direction, extinguishing itself when it was at an altitude of about 44km almost vertically of the town of Montoro in Cordoba province.

Astronomical observatories of Sevilla, La Sagra, the Sierra Nevada in Granada, Calar Alto in Almeria, and La Hita in Toledo all picked up the flight of the fireball as it travelled across the night sky.

Operating within the framework of the Southwest Europe Fireball and Meteor Network (Swem), the Smart project detectors aim to continuously monitor the sky. With this, it is possible to record and study the impact against the Earth’s atmosphere of rocks from different Solar System objects, as reported by diariodesevilla.es.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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