Bright fireball streaks across Malaga and Granada
The meteroid, detached from comet 1P/Halley, entered the atmosphere at 243,000 kilometres per hour
The sky once again became a spectacle for astronomy enthusiasts on 21 October, especially in Malaga. A rock ('meteroid') detached from comet 1P/Halley generated a fireball that could be seen over Malaga and Granada, although its great luminosity reached a large part of the Iberian Peninsula.
The phenomenon was observed at 2.13am on Tuesday, 21 October. The fireball entered the atmosphere at 243,000 kilometres per hour. Professor José María Madiedo of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) explained that the phenomenon was part of the Orionids meteor shower.
When it hit the air so suddenly, its surface heated up and became incandescent, generating a fireball that started at 126 kilometres above Albuñuelas, in the province of Granada.
From there, it moved towards the west and went out at an altitude of about 83 kilometres over the town of Villanueva de la Concepción in Malaga. Before it was extinguished, it travelled a total distance of about 84 kilometres through the Earth's atmosphere.
A similar fireball was observed by the Smart project systems on 18 October.
