Spotting a fireball flying over Morocco – NBC Bay Area

Huelva, Spain – Detectors of the SMART project of the Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) in Spain, from astronomical observatories in Huelva, Seville, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Calar Alto (Almeria) and La Hita (Toledo) have recorded the passage of a fireball over Morocco at 37,000 mph.

According to the analysis by astrophysicist José María Madedo, a researcher at the Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), in southern Spain, and SMART project manager, this fireball was recorded at 3:56 a.m. on Sunday. . And “it has become more luminous than the brightness of the full moon”, prompting “many people” to be able to observe the phenomenon from Spain, echoing it on social networks.

Madiedo’s calculations show that the rock that caused this phenomenon came from an asteroid and entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 37,000 miles per hour.

Violent friction with the Earth’s atmosphere at such a huge speed caused the surface of the rock (meteorite) to heat up to a temperature of several thousand degrees Celsius and become incandescent, thus generating a fireball that started at an altitude of about 60 thousand miles per hour. Abu Grein town.

From this location it advanced to the southeast and faded at about 19,000 mph over the town of Bani Ukail.

It was characterized by showing many eruptions along its path, which were due to various sudden discontinuities in the rock, causing sudden increases in luminosity.

SMART is a project developed by the Southwest European Fireball and Meteor Network (SWEMN Network); It is a research network coordinated by the Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).

SWEMN aims to continuously monitor the sky in order to record and study the influence of rocks from various objects in the solar system on Earth’s atmosphere.