This stunning bolide was spotted from Spain on January 24, at 7:20 local time (equivalent to 6:20 universal time). It was almost as bright as the full Moon. The fireball was observed by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses, who reported it on social networks. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 114,000 km/h. The fireball overflew southern Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. It began at an altitude of about 100 km over Fuente la Sabina (province of Albacete), moved southeast, overflew the region of Murcia and the south of the province of Alicante, and finally ended at a height of around 40 km over the Mediterranean Sea. This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, Marçà (Tarragona), and Otura (Granada). 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). Its code in the SWEMN database is: SWEMN20250124_062019.
