An Andalusian fireball on Dec 11th, 2016!

On December 11th 2016 evening, the Spanish sky was lit up at 22:25 local time (21:25 UT) thanks to a very bright fireball whose magnitude was below that of the full moon (magnitude estimated to -15±2)! The event was recorded by several fireball and meteor observing stations mainly located in the South of the country (Seville, Granada, Almería). But given the impressive brightness of this fireball, it was also observed from Madrid, Huelva and Toledo, which are situated more towards Spanish middle latitudes.

The Andalusian fireball entered the Earth’s atmosphere with a speed of 20 km/s, flying over the provinces of Granada and Jaén.

Below is a video recorded by camera located at Calar Alto Observatory, close to the city of Almería.

Witnesses claim to have heard an explosion as well as to have felt a tremor similar to a slight earthquake. From these testimonies and the preliminary analysis of the phenomenon, it is probable that a part of the rock has survived its abrupt passage through the atmosphere, falling to the ground as a meteorite.

All the images and information are currently being processed by the Spectroscopy of Meteoroids in the Atmosphere by means of Robotic Technologies project (SMART).