Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Tunguska: The Largest Recent Impact Event

NASA ^ | October 02, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Yes, but can your meteor do this? The most powerful natural explosion in recent Earth history occurred on 1908 June 30 when a meteor exploded above the Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia. Detonating with an estimated power 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, the Tunguska event leveled trees over 40 kilometers away and shook the ground in a tremendous earthquake. Eyewitness reports are astounding. The above picture was taken by a Russian expedition to the Tunguska site almost 20 years after the event, finding trees littering the ground like toothpicks. Estimates of the meteor's size range from 60 meters to over 1000 meters in diameter. Recent evidence suggests that nearby Lake Cheko may even have been created by the impact. Although a meteor the size of the Tunguska can level a city, metropolitan areas take up such a small fraction of the Earth's surface that a direct impact on one is relatively unlikely. More likely is an impact in the water near a city that creates a dangerous tsunami. One focus of modern astronomy is to find Solar System objects capable of creating such devastation well before they impact the Earth.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Leonid Kulik Expedition, Wikipedia ]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Ooh, on the Earth, but *now* we're talkin'. ;')

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[ken21]

amazing.

[Past Your Eyes]

I’ve always been fascinated by that story.

[BigCinBigD]

The Tunguska “event” was the result of a warp core breach on a Type VII shuttle craft that became unstable after entering a temporal rift. The shuttle had been trying to enter a McDonald's Fly-Through on Kronos when a passing heard of Targs caused the rift.

True story...

[treetopsandroofs]

Does this mean we no longer have to fear a Borg incursion to the past?

Where is Zephram Cochran now?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Tesla’s fault!

[Amberdawn]

http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/tu99foto.htm Pictures from the University Of Bologna expedition.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Targs “trippin’ the Rift”? Oh the horror of it.

Worse than “Time Tunnel”.

[Tainan]

Cool stuff. I remember reading about this when I was a mere kiddo.
More stuff:

Tunguska Home page

The scientists visiting there had trouble with the bears in the area.

[Celtic Conservative]

All that due to a hankering for heart of targ McNuggets?(with bloodwine sauce)

CC

[Quix]

Some say the cause was one of Tesla’s experiments.

Some say an exotic craft exploded or had some effect just above the surface there.

[BigCinBigD]

Klingon secret sauce is to die for. No, really it will kill you.

[ixtl]

No, actually it’s Bush’s fault. If you don’t believe me, just as Obama.

[SunkenCiv]

David Hatcher Childress claimed in one of his ridiculous but entertaining books that Tesla’s test of his Wardenclyffe Tower wireless transmission of electricity system corresponded with the Tunguska blast. There’s literally no way that could have happened, since the facility was in foreclosure in 1908, and Tesla had no money. In addition, knocking down all the trees for miles — in the Middle of Nowhere, Siberia — would have required far more energy than could be broadcasted from the tower. Also, there’s the matter of why a firing-up of what was ultimately a radio transmitter in upstate NY would cause an explosion in Siberia — there is no connection at all.

The book “The Fire Came By” regarding the exploding UFO angle was an interesting read (that was during my college days) but the case isn’t compelling. The exploding UFO idea originated with a Russian circa 1960, but he’s not the author of the book. It’s probably around here somewhere, in the chaos and disorder of my home. ;’)

One detail from “TFCB” that’s of interest here is that the incoming bolide that impacted near Tunguska was seen burning its way across the skies of India.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[SunkenCiv]

It was a necessity, from the sound of it. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!