Steve ShawA mysterious explosion shook Nicaragua’s capital city Managua on Sunday night, creating a large crater. Officials say it appears to have been caused by a meteorite.
There were no reported injuries but its impact was felt across the capital. According to local media, residents who live near to the crater said they heard a loud blast, which they assumed was an explosion, followed by dust being blown into the air and the smell of something burning.
The meteorite landed in a wooded area near the airport and left a crater measures 12 meters across. According to the BBC, experts believe the meteorite could have broken off from the 2014RC asteroid which passed Earth at the same time.
2014RC was discovered by NASA on August 31st and passed Earth by about 25,000 miles on Saturday. The rock is about 18 metres in diameter, around the same size as the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February 2013.
The meteor shower in Chelyabinsk led to over 1,400 injuries and over 7,000 damaged buildings. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it proved the “entire planet” is vulnerable to meteors and called for a system to protect Earth from meteor impacts in the future.