This stunning fireball overflew the Mediterranean Sea on 2020 February 19 at 3:31 UT. It was generated by a sporadic meteoroid moving on an asteroid-like orbit that hit the atmosphere at about 126,000 km/h. The meteor reached a peak magnitude of -9+-1. It began at an altitude of about 99 km over the sea, and ended at a height of around 31 km after traveling about 81 km in the Earth’s atmosphere between the coasts of Spain and Algeria.
The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from the meteor-observing stations located at Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), and Sevilla. The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).
