A committee formed by the Nicaraguan government determined that a new, 39-foot-wide (12 meters) crater found near capital city Managua international airport was blasted out by a space rock strike Saturday night. But experts aren't convinced....
Some Managua residents reported hearing a loud boom on Saturday, which would be consistent with a meteorite impact. But other details warrant a healthy dose of skepticism, said Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
"Something that produced a crater this big should have also produced an incredibly bright fireball in the night sky," Cooke said. "And no one reports a fireball, even though it was near midnight under scattered clouds."
urther, Managua is a big city, with lots of potential witnesses to such a night-sky sight. People saw a bright fireball the last time Cooke can recall a meteorite blasting out a crater on Earth, in September 2007 near the Peruvian village of Carancas — and that impact occurred in broad daylight.
source - space
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