The detectors of the SMART project, the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), from the Observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada and La Sagra (Granada), Seville and La Hita (Toledo) have detected the fall of a
Meteorito in the province of Badajoz.
This has indicated the researcher responsible for the SMART project, the Astrophysician José María Mostedo, who has analyzed the Bolida that has generated the impact, recorded this past Wednesday around 22.25 hours.
At that time, the detectors captured how a rock from an asteroid-knowledge with the name of Meteroids – hit the atmosphere at about 76,000 kilometers / hour over southern Spain.
As a result of this huge speed the rock became incandescent, generating a ball of fire that crossed the night sky, being its luminosity, equivalent to that of the full moon, so it could be seen from more than 600 kilometers away.
Numerous people could contemplate this phenomenon, which was especially spectacular in the heavens of Seville, Huelva, Córdoba and Extremadura.
In fact, the fireball began on the south of the province of Badajoz, at an altitude of about 91 kilometers and from there advanced northwest, extinguishing at an altitude of about 22 kilometers on a point located near the vertical of
The town of La Albuera (Badajoz).
Throughout his trajectory he showed several explosions that caused sudden increases in his luminosity and that were due to various abrupt ruptures of the rock.
The preliminary analysis of the event indicates that the ROCA was not completely destroyed in the atmosphere: it is believed that a small part of it has survived, falling to the ground in the form of meteorite.
MADEDO has pointed out that, for the moment, the exact place of impact or size or characteristics can not be specified.
The SMART project detectors operate within the framework of the Network of Bolids and Meteors of Southwest Europe (SWEMN), which aims to continuously monitor the sky in order to register and study the impact on the terrestrial atmosphere of rocks from different
Objects of the Solar System.
