Sandia supercomputers offer new explanation of Tunguska disaster

EurekAlert ^ | 12/18/07 | Mark Boslough

[crazyshrink]

INCINERATION POSSIBLE - Fine points of the "fireball" that might be expected from an asteroid exploding in Earth's atmosphere are indicated in a supercomputer simulation devised by a team led by Sandia researcher Mark Boslough. (Photo by Randy Montoya )

[okie01]

“The asteroid that caused the extensive damage was much smaller than we had thought,” says Sandia principal investigator Mark Boslough...

Whereupon, he offers us 750 words -- without a single clue as to the asteroid's size, before or after the simulation.

[rellimpank]

--The new interpretation also accounts for the fact that winds were amplified above ridgelines where trees tended to be blown down, and that the forest at the time of the explosion, according to foresters, was not healthy. Thus previous scientific estimates had overstated the devastation caused by the asteroid, since topographic and ecologic factors contributing to the result had not been taken into account.--

--I suspect "garbage in, garbage out," still applies--

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

"You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909!"

[frithguild]

Simulations show that the material of an incoming asteroid is compressed by the increasing resistance of Earth’s atmosphere. As it penetrates deeper, the more and more resistant atmospheric wall causes it to explode as an airburst that precipitates the downward flow of heated gas.

[SIDENET]

Great movie reference!

[Deaf Smith]

"explode as an airburst that precipitates the downward flow of heated gas."

Shaped Charge. Sort of a RPG from space.

[SunkenCiv]

Crack open a bottle of Bomb Perignon, because...

Smaller asteroids may pose greater danger than previously believed

That gets the Well-Duh award nomination for the week.

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[BenLurkin]

“smaller”

[SunkenCiv]

One of the mags (could have been S&T, or Astronomy, or Science, or Nature, etc) had an article "The Big Fizzle Is Coming" -- basically an op-ed. Jupiter will just gulp it down, and there won't be so much as a disturbance of its cloud tops. Instead, each of the impactors left visible impact craters which remained for months, despite what is widely thought to be Jupiter's gaseous composition.

The Horrendous Space Kablooey at Jupiter
(the fate of comet Shoemaker Levy 9)
by Paul Schenk and Julie Moses
Shoemaker-Levy 9, LPIB, August 1994, Number 72

When astronomers on seven continents aimed every available telescope and instrument at Jupiter during the week of July 16, there were many predictions, ranging from "The Big Fizzle" to major impacts, to the disruptions of personal horoscopes and other catastrophes (Ice Ages) here on Earth. Although the magnitude of the damage done to Jupiter came as a pleasant surprise, equally surprising to scientists was that the event had actually produced visible results.

[okie01]

“smaller”

Than a bread box...???

[Fred Nerks]

Perhaps the tunguska trees and the bristlecone pines shared a similar fate:

http://olkhov.narod.ru/tungus9.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/FredNerks/bristleconepine.jpg

http://olkhov.narod.ru/conf98.htm

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“90-TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TUNGUSKA PROBLEM”
Krasnoyarsk (Russia), June 30 - July 2, 1998

[Fred Nerks]

if you don’t speak Russian, try this:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/FredNerks/tunguskatrees.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

Das vadanya. Nyet. Vodka. That’s my entire Russian vocabulary. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

I was a bit surprised (http://olkhov.narod.ru/conf98.htm) to read that there *is* a tectonic “explanation” for it, iow, someone has claimed that an earthquake caused the trees to fall down for miles in all direction, just in a nice round-ish crater-like arrangement, and did nothing else for many more miles in any direction. I would also wonder how the visual sighting of the incoming object (reported in contemporary newspapers in India) could be explained by tectonics. ;’)

[Fred Nerks]

You’re in luck..the reports from the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE are in english. (And cover just about everything, including methane...)

[Fred Nerks]

..there are some little gems to be found in the reports:

In this case the high initial potentiality could be explained not only by mechanical or electromagnetic processes, but also by a shift that occurred in the informational sphere of the planet. This shift could result both from natural and man- generated processes, caused by upsetting the informational and energy balance. Thus, the Tunguska Event could be identified with a global manifestation of the poltergeist phenomenon in the terrestrial space...

DON'T TELL ALGORE!

[blam]

Nostrovia

[Fred Nerks]

Moio sudno na vozdušnoy poduške polno ugrey!

[SunkenCiv]

If that’s the plural of ‘nostril’...