Bright fireball over Spain generated by a meteoroid from Comet D/1978 R1 (Haneda-Campos)

A bright fireball was observed by a wide number of eyewitnesses over southern Spain at 19:41 UTC on October 3, 2021. This bright object overflew the province of Granada in Andalusia and was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from different meteor-observing stations located in Spain.

According to an analysis by the principal investigator of the SMART project, Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), this bolide was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from Comet D/1978 R1 (Haneda-Campos) that hit the atmosphere at about 54 000 km/h.

It began over eastern Granada at an altitude of about 81 km (50 miles), moved northwest, and ended at a height of around 34 km (21 miles) over the north of the same province.

Featured image credit: Meteoroides.net