Email
Much does not ring true about the claims that a meteorite struck Managua, Nicaragua, late on 6 September, local time, causing an explosion, ground tremor and shock wave "like a bomb" while blasting a 12-metre-wide crater alongside the airport and (coincidentally?) air force base.
Most significantly, such a meteorite would have been heralded by a meteoric fireball at least as bright as the full moon, and it is amazing that no one among the 2 million-plus people in Managua reported any such thing at the time. Also notable by its absence is any security camera footage of the fireball.
There was certainly a "boom", and some witnesses smelled gunpowder or burning. However, all the accounts, and indeed the crater itself, can be explained more credibly by a man-made explosion, intentional or otherwise.
To admit as much might cause embarrassment, so I imagine the authorities were relieved to find a committee prepared to attribute the event to a meteorite that came from a small asteroid, 2014 RC, passing close to the Earth.
In fact, 2014 RC was beyond the Moon's orbit at the time of the explosion and passed less than 33,550km above New Zealand 13 hours later. If there was a meteorite, and only verifiable fragments can confirm this, respected international experts concur that it cannot have been related to the asteroid.
The latter, also perhaps 12 metres wide, is of interest in its own right since it appears to rotate in only 15.8 seconds, which is 30% faster than any other known asteroid.
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