Friday, January 16, 2009

Tunguska explosion mystery solved by 3-d super computer

The 1908 Tunguska explosion that occurred in Siberia was the largest impact event in recent history. The real surprise though is the asteroid that caused the event may have been only a fraction as large as previously published estimates - this according to Sandia National Laboratories researchers.

The point that researchers want to point out is that even though the Tunguska asteroid was far smaller than originally estimated. The resulting explosion was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Further, the chances of impacts from smaller bodies is far greater than those of larger ones. With this in mind, efforts should be redoubled to track the smaller asteroid bodies. Now that impact characteristics are more clearly understood, and the resulting explosions can be much greater than previously understood.

<- read more of the Daily Galaxy article on the Tunguska event ->


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