Latin America News: NASA Scientists, Others Question Nicaragua's Meteorite Claims
On Sunday, the Nicaraguan government reported that a meteorite struck the Latin American country, but now some experts are casting doubt on the claim.
Rosario Murillo, a spokeswoman for the government, said that a government committee determined that a "relatively small" meteorite appeared "to have come off an asteroid that was passing close to Earth," The Associated Press reported.
The meteorite reportedly created a booming noise over the capital of Managua, and created a crater near the city's airport. The crater had a radius of 39 feet (12 meters) and a depth of 16 feet (5 meters).
Bill Cooke, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said that a crater that big must have been made by an explosion with the same amout of energy as about 1 ton of TNT, AP reports.
"For something to produce a hole in the ground that big, it would have generated a very bright fireball. And nothing was reported ... despite the population," Cooke said. "So I'm very skeptical."
Meanwhile, Richard Binzel, an MIT asteroid expert, disputed reports that the meteorite could have come off asteroid 2014 RC, also known as Pitbull.
"But outside meteorite experts later downplayed links to the small asteroid, dubbed 2014 RC, which passed harmlessly by Earth over the weekend," he told National Geographic. "About the size of a house, 2014 RC passed within 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) of our planet on Sunday. Information is limited, but the miss distance of 2014 RC actually precludes any related meteorite impact [at the Managua crater]."
Jaime Incer, an adviser to the Nicaraguan presidency on environmental issues, and Lindley Johnson, NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program program executive, also said that Sunday's incident had nothing to do with the asteroid.
According to Johnson, 2014 RC was as far away as the moon when the Nicaraguan explosion occurred and did not come close to Earth until 13 hours later.
Cooke suggested that the incident could have been the result of "someone out blowing things up."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.
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