© article.wn.comMeteorite leave crater in Nicaraguan capital Managua.
"We are convinced that this was a meteorite. We have seen the impact from the crater," Wilfredo Strauss of the Seismic Institute said, as cited by the AFP.
Nicaraguan authorities are pretty sure it was a piece of an asteroid dubbed "2014 RC", an estimated 20-meter large piece of rock that whizzed close past Earth, Humberto Garcia, of the Astronomy Center at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, told The Associated Press on Sunday. It was most clearly witnessed in the skies above New Zealand. At its closest, asteroid 2014 RC was a mere 34,000km from the Earth's surface, about one-tenth of the distance to the moon.
The impact was severe and was heard throughout Managua. The meteorite crashed into a wooded area close to Managua's Augusto C. Sandino International Airport around midnight and left a remarkable 12-meter diameter crater, 5 meters deep. However, no one was hurt and operations at the airport weren't interrupted.
Comment: Asteroids and meteors: Henny-Penny harbingers of things to come. A meteorite is a solid piece of debris, from such sources as asteroids or comets, that originates in outer space and survives its impact with the Earth's surface. It is called a meteoroid before its impact and may vary in size from tiny grains to large boulders.