Meteorite flashes across several Spanish provinces, landing in Badajoz

SMART project detectors from the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics (IAA-CSIC) last night detected a huge meteorite as it crossed the skies in southern Spain, crashing in the province of Badajoz. 

The phenomenon was detected from the observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada and La Sagra (Granada), Seville and La Hita (Toledo).

Detectors recorded a rock from an asteroid - known as a 'meteroid' - as it hit the atmosphere at about 76,000 kilometres per hour.

SMART Project researcher, astrophysicist José María Madiedo, said the fireball generated by the meteorite's impact on the atmosphere was recorded at around 10:25 pm on Wednesday evening.

The enormous speed at which it was travelling caused the rock to become incandescent, generating a fireball that crossed the night sky, its luminosity was similar to that of the full moon, making it visible from more than 600 kilometres away.

Huge numbers of people got the chance to see this phenomenon, which was especially spectacular in the skies over Seville, Huelva, Córdoba and Extremadura.

The fireball started over the south of the province of Badajoz, at an altitude of about 91 kilometres and from there it advanced in a north-westerly direction, extinguishing at an altitude of about 22 kilometres over a point located near the town of La Albuera (Badajoz).