'Meteorite' smashes into Nicaraguan capital

Managua just dodged a bullet. A rather big bullet.


pic source:
twitter.com...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – A mysterious explosion that rocked Nicaragua’s crowded capital Managua, creating a large crater, appears to have been caused by a meteorite, officials said Sunday.

Amazingly, in a sprawling city of 1.2 million people, the impact near the international airport did not cause any known injuries, but it did leave a crater measuring 12 meters (39 feet) across.

“We are convinced that this was a meteorite. We have seen the crater from the impact,” said Wilfredo Strauss of the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies.

The meteorite appeared to have hurtled into a wooded area near the airport around midnight Saturday, its thunderous impact felt across the capital.

The hit was so large that it registered on the instruments Strauss’ organization uses to size up earthquakes.

Source 1:
www.ticotimes.net...

Source 2:
www.rawstory.com...

So just out of curiosity, I pulled up some seismic station raw data in Nicaragua on my rig. Now I see a couple of things that MIGHT be it, but without knowing the exact time this hit, it is difficult to say, because otherwise they look like small earthquakes.

So if anyone gets any other info, and particularly the exact time it hit, it would allow me to pinpoint what signature it is on spectro, and I can then post the resulting spectro pic. Now that'd be pretty cool, and I always wondered what an impact would look like on seismograms/spectro.

Also, it just goes to show that nowhere is safe. It was a miracle that landed where it did. Anyone have a clue as to how big that had to be to leave a 39 foot crater? I'm guessing about 2 to 3 ft across at impact (and keep in mind most of it probably burned up in the atmosphere)- but of course that depends on composition, speed, and trajectory angle...

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Mini doom!
Who knows what may follow?
All in all pretty exciting.

a reply to: randyvs

check the OP again, I found a pic of it...

Could this be the close encounter for Sept7/14 that was supposed to pass within 0.1LD?

ATS thread

originally posted by: kicked
Could this be the close encounter for Sept7/14 that was supposed to pass within 0.1LD?

ATS thread

Interesting. While I doubt it, as that is pretty far away still, who knows, might have been a piece of it or an accompanying little rock that got sucked into earth's gravity. Dunno. But cool idea, and a star for you for seeing the tie in.

Just think, you could be sitting at your PC, all happy, with not a care in the World and Boom...Game over man...I'm still convinced i have been victim to two meteor strikes in my life.. one hit me on the head, the other bounced of my sisters car..put a dent in the roof...ok, small fry but the one that hit me on the head knocked me off a wall.

Was wondering if it was going to hit us lucky no one was hurt

a reply to: kicked

"near" is now "here" and this is 9" (-----------------------------------------) hahahaha

a reply to: TrueAmerican

While I doubt it, as that is pretty far away still, who knows, might have been a piece of it or an accompanying little rock that got sucked into earth's gravity.

A piece or "accompanying" rock would be in the same orbit as the larger object. Gravity doesn't suck things, it determines how things fall. In order to arrive so long before the asteroid, a small object would have to have some source of thrust to push it out in front. Remember Galileo? He demonstrated that mass has no effect on how something falls.

It's going to be interesting to find out what further analysis shows. Hopefully, as with the Russian meteorite, a reconstruction of the object's orbit can be made.

Ok, so after bit more detective work, found out from reading a site in Spanish that the impact occurred at about 11:05 PM local time. Dug up Nicaragua time zone, converted to UTC (UTC- 6 hours), and determined what to look for on seismic data. Went and found the closest WORKING seismic station I could discern to the impact, and that turned out to be MASN.NU. So I downloaded the data and displayed, looking for that exact time. And here's what I found:



Spectro and waveform provided.

That signature on spectro would be consistent with a shallow, small impact, as you can see the higher frequency range of it, and not dipping down into real low frequencies below 5 Hz- like an earthquake from deep in the earth would do. If there were a seismic station closer, would have had a better view.

Not all that exciting, I know, but it was a good exercise for me nonetheless to keep the chops up.

And btw, this is probably the first and only place on the web you will see that pic. So copyright rules apply, and permission is not granted by me to use that pic anywhere else. ATS only.

There are sometimes companions with bigger meteors. Kicked is probably right. They can be ahead of the meteor or trail behind and can be off to the side of the meteor enough to hit earth. They can also orbit the meteor. A meteor this size can't have too big of a meteor orbiting it though. It could have been on side of it though and all telescopes were trained on the bigger meteor.

a reply to: rickymouse

There are sometimes companions with bigger meteors.

According to whom? Bruce Willis?

Yes, large asteroids can have objects in orbit around them. The asteroid we are talking about is tiny.

a reply to: kicked

You know the last time we had a close encounter Russia was hit...and everyone said it wasn't the one we were all watching...this is 2 for 2 now since I started following this stuff. Good call.

I tried guessing the mass of the object from various equations.

keyah.asu.edu...

Roughly, the diameter is 40 times the diameter of the meteorite, 12 meters/40 = 30 cm. So that would seem to come out at the weight of a large cannonball, which I guess would be 34 kg (Volume = 4/3 radius^3), density of steel = 7700kg per cubic meter = 7.7kg per square meter

my knowledge in this subject is lacking, i was more or less just spitballing. if it had actually been the 21m wide object there would have been an impact much larger than the one in the picture in the OP, and definitely a more sizeable "thunk".

At its closest point, the asteroid 2014 RC passed over New Zealand at 18:18 GMT on Sunday. It is about 18m (60ft) wide.

Nasa says it is about 40,000km (25,000 miles) away, and posed no danger to Earth.

However, a meteorite that landed near the Nicaraguan capital Managua on Sunday could have come from the asteroid, experts there said.

The object caused an explosion and earth tremor, leaving a crater 12m (39ft) across and 5m deep near the city's airport.

BBC Sept7/14

originally posted by: stormcell
I tried guessing the mass of the object from various equations.

keyah.asu.edu...

Roughly, the diameter is 40 times the diameter of the meteorite, 12 meters/40 = 30 cm. So that would seem to come out at the weight of a large cannonball, which I guess would be 34 kg (Volume = 4/3 radius^3), density of steel = 7700kg per cubic meter = 7.7kg per square meter

Or, 40 ft crater/40= about 1 ft in length. But since most meteorites have a lower density than that, and are of the stony variety, or hybrid, then chances are it was right about what I guessed- about 2 ft long. Who knows, but it really wasn't all that big. And that's the scary part, when you think about an asteroid 10 KILOMETERS across, or more, hitting the planet at blinding speeds.

originally posted by: kicked
However, a meteorite that landed near the Nicaraguan capital Managua on Sunday could have come from the asteroid, experts there said.

The object caused an explosion and earth tremor, leaving a crater 12m (39ft) across and 5m deep near the city's airport.

BBC Sept7/14

Well Phage, you've been usurped. By "experts". According to them, kicked may have been right in the first place. Who's to say that smaller asteroids can't have even smaller company coming with them, if some bigger ones do?

And further, if that space rock was generated by a collision, then chances are that smaller fragments that we can't see may be traveling on slightly different, but similar, paths. Different by just enough to enter the earth's gravity. Especially if the main, small asteroid was coming that close to begin with. I think it's possible. So good call, kicked.

As a boy I had dreams of seeing and finding a meteorite impact. More than treasure in a sunken galleon, more than the gold in Fort Knox.

Something about a chunk of matter from deep in space gets me all worked up. Seeing that guy with the metal detector is like finding out in high school that my favorite sexy movie star just got engaged to somebody that wasn't me.

Lucky bastard!

a reply to: TrueAmerican

Yes. "Experts." I wonder if those experts realized that when the meteorite struck, 2014 RC was farther from Earth than the Moon was.

Who's to say that smaller asteroids can't have even smaller company coming with them, if some bigger ones do?

It's a problem of gravity. Small objects don't have enough of it to keep objects in orbit around them. And certainly not at a distance of 275,000 miles. I can't absolutely say it wasn't at this point (lets see if they can figure out the orbit that the meteorite was on before Earth got in its way), but I can say it's highly unlikely.

a reply to: TrueAmerican


Prolly less then the size of my fist with velocity in the red.
But I'm no Mr. Phage.