What is the strange fireball that flew over Madrid at 51,000 kilometers per hour: the images

He Madrid sky This Sunday evening was illuminated by the arrival of a spectacular phenomenon that only a few were able to observe. Only those who looked at the sky from 11:06 p.m.

And at that time the La Hita Astronomical Complex in Toledo recorded a fireball crossing the night sky, as reported European press. The car was seen by some witnesses who echoed the phenomenon on social networks. They could see it from the city of Toledo Villasequillawhere it all began, and the Community of Madridwhere he eventually disappeared.

It was a rock that was traveling above our heads at a speed speed of about 51,000 kilometers per houraccording to the astrophysicist’s analysis Jose Maria Madiedoresearcher of Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and responsible for Smart projectAccording to the results, the phenomenon occurred during entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

More specifically, the rock came from an asteroid. These rocks that intersect Earth’s orbit are called meteoroids and the sudden friction of the rock with the atmosphere at this enormous speed made the meteoroid incandescent, thus generating a fireball that started at an altitude of about 81 kilometers.

Subsequently, it progressed towards the north, entering the airspace of the Community of Madrid and, finally, It went out at an altitude of about 38 kilometers on the capital, in particular on the district of Fuentelareina.

The big one brightness that this car reached meant that it could be seen from more than 600 kilometers away. Throughout its trajectory, it presented several explosions that caused sudden increases in its brightness and which were due to various sudden ruptures of the rock.

In total, the fireball It traveled about 68 kilometers in the air and was completely destroyed in the atmosphere.so that no fragments managed to reach the ground.

Smart project

More precisely, this large rock was recorded by the detectors which South-West Europe Bolide and Meteor Network (Swemn Network) which operates in the La Hita astronomical complex, as reported by the Astrohita Foundation in a press release.

These detectors operate as part of Project Smart, a research project of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) which is coordinated by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia with the aim of continuously monitoring the sky to record and study the impact of rocks from different objects in the solar system on the Earth’s atmosphere.

This has also been recorded by the detectors that this same research project has installed in the observatories of Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, Seville, La Sagra in Granada, Huelva, Olocau and Faro de Cullera, the last two in Valencia. Madrid has also witnessed other meteoroids in recent years.