Meteorite leaves crater in Nicaraguan capital

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Meteorite leaves crater in Nicaraguan capital Managua

A small meteorite landed near the international airport in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, on Saturday night, government officials say.

Residents reported hearing a loud bang and feeling the impact, which left a crater 12m (40ft) wide and 5m deep.

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said the meteorite seemed to have broken off an asteroid which was passing close to Earth.

Read more...

[Ashotep]

Fortunate it never killed anyone. Luckily it was just part of a asteroid and not the whole thing.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Fortunate it never killed anyone.

Fortunately, despite our perceptions, most of the land mass of Earth is still unoccupied. This, and the factor our planet really should be called Ocean not Earth, means that a small meteorite like this causing fatalities is still low. However the fact that this hit a city is a reminder that the chances, whilst low, are not zero.

Luckily it was just part of a asteroid and not the whole thing.

Personally I am sceptical of the claim that this is a fragment of 2014 RC. The report says that this impact occurred around midnight local time. That is around 06:00 UTC... more than 12 hours before 2014 RC passed over New Zealand.

However the experts will be able to determine if the two bodies are connected or not.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA Raises Doubts About Reports of Nicaraguan Meteorite

Questions follow supposed meteorite impact.

An explosion and a crater reported near the capital of Nicaragua raised suspicions on Monday that a meteorite had split off from an asteroid that passed by Earth this weekend and struck our planet. But NASA scientists have now cast doubt on whether the blast outside Managua was even a meteorite at all.

The blast left a hole 40 feet (12 meters) wide and 19 feet (5 meters) deep outside the international airport serving Nicaragua's capital. Some Nicaraguan astronomers quoted in early news reports attributed the blast to a chip off a weekend asteroid flyby.

Read more...

[+DieChecker]

I blew up a lot of big holes in the ground when I was with the Army, and that doesn't look like a regular military explosive charge. It could have been something like a barrel of fertilizer bomb that someone mixed up and set off. That might make a blast hole like the pic being passed around the internet.

[pallidin]

I could be well wrong, but I thought this this event was partially investigated, and that a meteor strike was considered "improbable" though by no means impossible.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I could be well wrong, but I thought this this event was partially investigated, and that a meteor strike was considered "improbable" though by no means impossible.

See my post two above yours.

[shrooma]

something to do with the incident over Spain perhaps....?

.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

something to do with the incident over Spain perhaps....?

Which incident over Spain?

Which ever event you are referring to it seems unlikely that an incident oer Spain and crater 8.300 km away would be connected.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Which incident over Spain?

Ah, THAT incident over Spain. I now know what you were referring to.

My comment still stands though, the events are unconnected. See HERE for more details.

[qxcontinuum]

So this is exactly the meteorite that has been seen over Spain on the same day....and that was mistakenly thought to be an UFO. Because early hours Sunday morning in Spain was Saturday night in Nicaragua.

Edited September 10, 2014 by qxcontinuum

[shrooma]

it seems unlikely that an incident oer Spain and crater 8.300 km away would be connected.

.

not sure about that Waspie, look at Shoemaker-Levi 9 for example.....

.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

not sure about that Waspie, look at Shoemaker-Levi 9 for example.....

Shoemaker-Levy 9 is a remarkably poor example to choose as it is in no way comparable to what was observed this weekend. It is a rather special case.

Shoemaker-Levy 9 was an object which had been captured by Jupiter It had been in orbit around the planet for some time (estimated to be 20 to 30 years). The comet had been ripped to pieces by Jupiter and the long period it had been in orbit around the planet allowed the fragments to spread out along their orbital path.

Despite the 21 impacts from Shoemaker-Levi being spread out over 6 days they all occurred at the same latitude, a result of them all following the same orbital path around Jupiter.

2014 RC was not in orbit around the Earth and was observed entering from deep space. The impacts did not occur at the same latitude - Managua 12.1^o N, Barcelona 41.4^o N

The Earth is not stationary but is a moving target. In fact it moves at 67,000 mph. If the objects were associated then they would be following the same orbital path around the sun. It is impossible that we could have two hits and a close miss spread out by so much time and by so mach distance on the ground.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf
typo

[Waspie_Dwarf]

So this is exactly the meteorite that has been seen over Spain on the same day....and that was mistakenly thought to be an UFO. Because early hours Sunday morning in Spain was Saturday night in Nicaragua.

Time of Nicaragua event 00:00 hours local Saturday night = 06:00 UTC Sunday

Time of Spanish event 06:55 local time = 04:55 UTC Sunday

Time of asteroid 2014 RC closest pass 18:18 UTC

There is more than an hour between the Nicaragua and the Spanish events. If they were connected only one could have hit, the other would have missed by more than 67,000 miles.