Experts from the La Hita astronomical complex and observatory in Toledo said they had detected the fireball and said it was caused by an asteroid bursting into the earth’s atmosphere at a staggering 111,000mph.
The astronomical complex said the ball of fire had been spotted by a number of witnesses and was recorded by detectors at the University of Huelva.
A spokesman said the detectors work within the framework of Spain’s Spectroscopy of Meteoroids in the Atmosphere by means of Robotic Technologies (SMART) project.
They continuously monitor the sky to record and study the impact against the Earth’s atmosphere of rocks from different objects in the Solar System.
Analysis carried out by Professor José María Madiedo of the University of Huelva, the scientist behind the SMART project, said: “The fireball was produced as a result of the abrupt entry into the earth’s atmosphere of a rock coming from an asteroid.”
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The Astronomical Complex has detailed that the speed of the rock was around 111,000 mph, which led to it becoming incandescent and generating the “spectacular light phenomenon”.
Prof Madiedo said the rock was completely destroyed in the atmosphere so no fragments would have fallen to the ground in the form of a meteorite.
Earlier this month a bright and loud fireball was reported in the skied above the US state of Michigan.
The American Meteor Society said witnesses in Michigan and several surrounding states reported hearing a loud boom and a brief blazing flash in the sky.
Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said the meteor was about two yards in diameter and fell into the atmosphere at about 28,000 mph.
He said the flash it made was called a “super bolide” – a term given to fireballs that are brighter than the moon but dimmer than the sun.
He said: “Fireballs of that magnitude are pretty rare for Michigan.”
It comes as the moon will stage a rare triple show on Wednesday when a blue super moon combines with a total lunar eclipse that will be visible from western North America to eastern Asia, US astronomers say.
The overlap of a blue moon – the second full moon in a calendar month – with a lunar eclipse while the moon is at its closest approach to the earth is the first such celestial trifecta since 1982, said Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington.
(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega.)