Nicaragua Meteorite: Government Asks US For Help Investigating Mysterious Crater

Managua, Sep 10 (EFE).- The Nicaraguan government requested U.S. help in the ongoing scientific investigation of the meteorite that fell to Earth in an unpopulated part of Managua last weekend.

"Considering the small amount of experience and the lack of research means, Nicaragua desires to request the good offices of the (U.S.) embassy to get the support of the U.S. Geological Survey," Deputy Foreign Minister Orlando Gomez said in a letter to U.S. Ambassador in Managua Phyllis Powers.

The Scientific Association of Nicaraguan Astronomers and Astrophysicists denied that the meteorite was linked with asteroid 2014RC, as government experts had said on Sunday.

Nicaraguan government scientists said on Sunday that the meteorite that landed in Managua could have been a fragment that became separated from 2014RC, basing this possibility on the fact that the time of impact had coincided with the close passage of the asteroid over the southwestern United States.

The impact, at 11:04 p.m. Saturday, created a crater some 12 meters (39 feet) in diameter and 5.5 meters (18 feet) deep near Managua's Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, according to the official report.

The government said 24 seismic stations registered the meteorite's impact and the shock wave from it lasted 16 seconds.

Nicaraguan scientists do not yet have any idea of the composition, size or exact flight path of the space rock. EFE