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Author
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Topic: Asteroid origin of 1908 Tunguska explosion
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MCroft04
Member Posts: 1656
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 06-26-2007 09:49 PM
   
I just read that scientists believe that Lake Cheki, nearby Tunguska, Siberia, may actually be an impact feature caused by a comet or asteroid impact responsible for the 1908 event (explosion) that has garnered much speculation over the years. Clearly more work is required but it's exciting to know that an answer to this mysterious event may come in the near future. Work to date is geophysical in nature, but coring of the lake sediments will be undertaken to test this new idea. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3120
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 06-27-2007 12:54 AM
In the version of the story I read most scientists were pretty skeptical of this theory. The crater shows almost none of the features it should, although the Italians come up with various reasons these features might be missing.The crater is also apparently too large to correspond to a fragment of the object thought to have caused the event. |
cspg
Member Posts: 6223
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006
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posted 06-27-2007 02:41 AM
Because there's a crater? Well, I must have missed an episode. My last recollection of this event was that an asteroid/comet exploded before hitting the ground. The blast that resulted toppled down trees and set the region on fire. I didn't know of any impact. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 1966
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 06-27-2007 07:04 AM
The History Channel has a documentary on this event. Here's an excerpt from the DVD's description: So remote was the Tunguska ground zero that thirteen years passed before the first recorded expedition arrived on the scene. Even then, findings were less than conclusive, and the intervening decades have given rise to over one hundred theories — from the probable to the absurd — about the blast. Despite the controversy, it is undeniable that the Tunguska Event was devastating and that it could happen again. |
Rodina
Member Posts: 836
From: Lafayette, CA
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted 06-27-2007 09:06 AM
quote:
Originally posted by cspg:
Because there's a crater?
The theory, such as it is, is that this is a fragment of the object that survived the explosion, but kept on moving. |
SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 4537
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 05-21-2020 09:51 AM
The Tunguska explosion could have been caused by an asteroid that still orbits the Sun. ...one would expect Tunguska fragments to have reached Earth. Despite several searches, nothing has been found. This has led some to look to other causes, such as a massive leak of natural gas, or even the explosion of an alien spacecraft. But a new study argues that there are no fragments because the asteroid didn’t fragment after all. Instead, it glanced off Earth’s atmosphere. |
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