Diario Sur - Diario de Málaga. Noticias de Malaga

Sections

Services

Highlight

Delete
The fireball was captured at six in the morning on Sunday, 23 April. SMART

Watch as spectacular fireball streaks across the skies of southern Spain

The meteoroid came from Halley's Comet and entered the atmosphere at a speed of around 240,000 kilometres per hour

Isabel Méndez

Malaga

Monday, 24 April 2023, 13:24

Early risers on Sunday morning, 23 April, were treated to the spectacle of a bright fireball streaking across the skies in the south of Spain.

The rock (meteoroid) came from Halley's Comet and the fireball was captured at 6.10am. It was seen particularly clearly in parts of Andalucía (mainly in Cordoba) and Extremadura (Badajoz).

The director of the SMART project, astrophysicist José María Madiedo from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), explained that the phenomenon occurred when a rock entered the atmosphere at a speed of about 240,000 kilometres per hour.

The violent friction with the Earth's atmosphere at this enormous speed caused the surface of the rock to heat up to a temperature of several thousand degrees Celsius and become incandescent, thus generating a fireball.

It began at an altitude of about 122 kilometres above the town of Villaviciosa de Córdoba, in the province of Cordoba, and from there moved towards the northwest and ended at an altitude of about 84 kilometres above Hinojosa del Valle, in the province of Badajoz.

The fireball was recorded by the SMART project detectors at monitoring stations located in Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Seville and Valencia.

Publicidad

Top 50
  1. 1 Sabor a Málaga foodie fair showcases the best local products from around the province
  2. 2 Average water use drought restrictions on the Costa del Sol eased slightly
  3. 3

    Cheaper tolls on the AP-7 motorway won't work
  4. 4 New low emissions zone prompts owners to register more than 2,000 vehicles in Malaga city
  5. 5 Former Fleet Street cartoonist Peter Maddocks dies at his home in Spain
  6. 6 Spain carries out inspection on two ships that collided in Strait of Gibraltar
  7. 7 Fifty years of love and 30 newspaper adverts in SUR to shout it out to the world
  8. 8 Noldi Schreck: The architect behind Puerto Banús
  9. 9 Find out why a young Irish soldier was buried in Malaga city
  10. 10 Belgian pianist brings Debussy and Chopin to Estepona

Publicidad

Publicidad

Publicidad

Espacios grises

Reporta un error en esta noticia

* Campos obligatorios

Política de privacidad

surinenglish Watch as spectacular fireball streaks across the skies of southern Spain