The Nicaraguan government said a small meteorite crashed and left a distinct crater in a forested area near the airport in Managua Sunday.

The government has formed a group to study the meteorite event. The committee deemed the event to have been "relatively small" and that the space rock "appears to have come off an asteroid that was passing close to Earth," said government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo.

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International experts will be arriving to help local scientists and researchers study the incident further.

The meteorite left a crater 39 feet wide and 16 feet deep.

Humberto Saballos, a volcanologist with the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies and member of the meteorite committee, said they're still unsure if the meteorite disintegrated or is buried underground.

Another member of the committee, Humberto Garcia of the Astronomy Center at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, said they believe the space rock was part of the asteroid that passed by earth Saturday night.

Researchers are unsure if the object is made of ice or rock.

Wilfried Strauch, an adviser to the Institute of Territorial Studies, also commented it was "very strange that no one reported a streak of light. We have to ask if anyone has a photo or something."

Although residents in the area stated they heard a loud boom Saturday evening, they didn't notice anything peculiar in the sky.

"I was sitting on my porch and I saw nothing, then all of a sudden I heard a large blast. We thought it was a bomb because we felt an expansive wave," said resident Jorge Santamaria.

Only journalists from the state media have been allowed to enter the impact area.

No one was hurt by the meteorite's impact.