Last Saturday night (May 18, 2024) a very bright meteor – a bolide – lit up the skies over Spain and Portugal.
The fireball was registered by meteor cameras such as AllSky7 operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), as well by dozens of individuals who shared footage on social media.
It is estimated that the meteor was of cometary origin and disintegrated at an altitude of about 60km. Whatever fragments remained of the original body fell over the Atlantic Ocean.
StAnD project will soon install three meteor cameras in Portugal that will enable schools and students to register similar events and calculate their trajectories, strengthening our knowledge about meteors and planetary defence!