The detectors of the La Hita Astronomical Complex (Toledo) have detected at 2:24 hours on March 12 a rock from an asteroid that, upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, at a speed of about 53,000 kilometers per hour, became incandescent and thus generated a ball of fire.
The phenomenon was recorded by the detectors that the Southwest European Fireball and Meteor Network (Red Swemn) operates in La Hita, within the framework of the Smart project that is coordinated by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) with the objective of continuously monitoring the sky to record and study the impact against the Earth’s atmosphere of rocks from different objects in the Solar System.
This rock was also recorded by the detectors that this same research project has installed in the observatories of Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, Seville, La Sagra (Granada), Huelva, Breda (Tarragona) and Sant Celoni (Girona), reports the Astrohita Foundation.
The fireball has been analyzed by the researcher responsible for the Smart Project, José María Maiedo and, according to the results of this analysis, the phenomenon occurred when a rock entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 53,000 kilometers per hour from an asteroid.
These rocks that intersect with the Earth’s orbit are called meteoroids and the sudden friction of the rock with the atmosphere at this enormous speed caused the rock to become incandescent, thus generating a fireball that began at an altitude about 74 kilometers above the town of Pedrezuela (Madrid) and from there it advanced in a northwesterly direction and became extinct at an altitude of about 33 kilometers above the town of Navalilla (Segovia).
However, the great luminosity that this fireball reached meant that it could be seen from more than 700 kilometers away from those places.
Throughout its trajectory, the fireball showed several explosions that caused sudden increases in its luminosity and that were due to several sudden ruptures of the rock.
The total distance that the fireball traveled in the atmosphere before extinguishing itself was about 77 kilometers and the rock was completely destroyed in the atmosphere, due to which no fragments made it to the ground.
