A rock from an asteroid, which was not totally destroyed, hit the atmosphere and generated a spectacular fireball
A rock from an asteroid impacted the atmosphere and generated a spectacular fireball at 21:28 (Spanish peninsular local time) on the night of April 2 and the preliminary analysis of the event indicates that the rock was not completely destroyed in the atmosphereTherefore, a part of it would have survived and fell to the ground in the form of a meteorite in the province of Toledo.
The rock, when flying over Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, caused a brightness greater than that of the full moonwhich was being observed by a multitude of witnesses from all over the Peninsula who echoed the phenomenon on social networks.
According to the Astrohita Foundation, the phenomenon was recorded by the detectors that the Southwest European Blids and Meteors Network (SWEMM Network) operates at the La Hita Astronomical Complex (Toledo), within the framework of the Smart Project coordinated from the Institute de Astrofísica de Andaluca (IAA-CSIC) with the aim of continuously monitoring the sky to record and study the impact against the terrestrial atmosphere of rocks from different objects in the Solar System.
The fireball was also recorded by the detectors that this same research project has installed in the Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, Seville, La Sagra (Granada) and Huelva observatories, and has been analyzed by the researcher responsible for the Smart Project, astrophysicist José María Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).
The analysis has made it possible to determine that the rock or meteoroid that originated this phenomenon entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 49,000 kilometers per hour and came from an asteroid.
The sudden friction of the rock with the atmosphere at that enormous speed caused the rock became incandescent and a ball of fire was generated which began at an altitude of about 88 kilometers above the town of Torrejn de Velasco (south of the Community of Madrid), from where it advanced in a southwesterly direction and extinguished at an altitude of about 24 kilometers above the town of Args (province of Toledo).
The fireball traveled a total distance in the atmosphere of about 78 kilometers and the preliminary analysis of the event indicates that the rock was not completely destroyed in the atmosphere, so a part of it would have survived and fallen to the ground as a meteorite. in the province of Toledo.
The day before, an artificial blister lit up the sky at various points on the Peninsula as it re-entered the atmosphere, but in this case, apparently, it was part of the payload of a satellite.
According to the criteria of