Bright Fireball Streaks Across Morocco and Southern Spain at 255,000 km/h

The fireball was seen on January 30 at 3:16 a.m. The intensity of its light was such that it could be seen from Andalusia, southern Spain, explains José María Madiedo, researcher at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics (IAA-CSIC) and principal investigator of the SMART project, specifying that the rock entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 255,000 km/h.

Read: Spectacular Fireball Streaks Across Morocco and Spain, Visible for 650 Kilometers

The sudden friction of this meteorite with the atmosphere at this speed made it incandescent, generating a fireball that started its course at an altitude of about 146 kilometers east of Morocco, above Oulad Sidi Abd el Hakem, continued its trajectory towards the northwest before going out at an altitude of about 62 kilometers northeast of Morocco, above the city of Tafersit, he adds.

The fireball covered a total distance of about 198 kilometers in the Earth’s atmosphere. It was detected by the astronomical observatories of Huelva, El Aljarafe, Seville, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Calar Alto (Almería) and La Hita (Toledo).