What was the Tunguska event?

The Tunguska event is the biggest impact event in the recorded history. This happened in 1908 near the Tunguska River, in the Middle East of Russia, an isolated area. It is assumed that it was caused when a large meteoroid or comet 197 to 623 feet (60 to 190 meters) exploded on average approximately 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 kilometers) above the ground. The event Tunguska flattened the forest area over 30 km (50 km) wide and fired over 80 million trees. On the epicenter of the explosion, the trees were standing, but deprived of their bark and limbs.

Due to the mystery of the Tunguska explosion - no meteroid was found - it was the subject of various pseudo -scientific theories about its origin, including the accident of an extraterrestrial spacecraft or an experiment by Nikola Tesla. The scientific community is in line with the explosion is probably due to the meteor air exchanges. Different calculations including the occurrence and angle of access to the body to give the body from the direction of the asteroid belt.

For decades, scientists have discussed whether the body is a comet - the body mainly from ice and dust - or an asteroid that would be metal and rocky. Contributions published in the last decade have been helping to promote asteroid hypothesis; If the body was a comet, it would probably break down in the atmosphere than to reach a few kilometers above the ground. The explosion was probably caused by a huge heat generated by atmospheric entry. The advocate hypothesis of comet suggests that the impact impact on Tunguska was a comet with a rocky core. To date, most Russian scientists believe that Tunguska's caterpillar was a comet, while American scientists believe it was an asteroid.

The Tunguska explosion was important in the way of awareness of the possibility of large asteroids affecting the Earth's surface. If the Tunguska explosion occurred in a populated area, millions of people could kill. Guinness of World Records ifThe collision would only occur 47 minutes later, the city of St. Petersburg would completely destroy.