Meteorite' smashes into Nicaraguan capital
Managua (AFP) - A mysterious explosion that rocked Nicaragua's crowded capital Managua, creating a large crater, appears to have been caused by a small meteorite, officials said Sunday.
Nicaraguan authorities believe it was a piece of the
small asteroid dubbed "2014 RC," which passed very close to Earth on
Sunday and was estimated by astronomers to be about 20 meters big, or the size
of a house.
"We are convinced that this was a meteorite. We
have seen the crater from the impact," said Wilfredo Strauss of the Seismic
Institute.
The meteorite appeared to have hurtled into a wooded
area near the airport around midnight and the hit was so large that it
registered on the instruments Strauss's organization uses to size up
earthquakes.
"You can see two waves: first, a small seismic
wave when the meteorite hit earth, and then another stronger one, which is the
impact of the sound," he said.
One of them, William Martinez, said it was not yet
clear if the meteorite burned up completely or if it had been blasted into the
soil.
"You can see mirror-like spots on the sides of
the crater from where the meteorite power-scraped the walls," Martinez
said.
People who live near the crater told local media they heard a blast they took for an explosion, and that liquid, sand and dust were blown through the air, which smelled like something had burned.
There were no reported injuries because the impact
was in a wooded spot, and flights at the airport were not affected.
NASA said last week that the asteroid 2014 RC, at
the time of closest approach, would be approximately one-tenth the distance
from the center of Earth to the moon, or about 25,000 miles (40,000
kilometers).
It had been projected to be roughly over New Zealand
at the time of its closest approach, which astronomers had calculated would be
on Sunday at about 1818 GMT.
