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Tunguska Mystery Blast Solved?

mfarah writes: "This BBC article informs that an Italian scientist team has determined that the 1908 blast in Tunguska was in fact caused by a low density asteroid - that's why no crater was ever found. The article mentions that had the asteroid fallen into a populated area, instead of remote Siberia, hundreds of thousands of casualties would have been the result. Fortunately this news comes well after the "meteorite blast" fad has faded from Hollywood..."

15 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. So no black oil in my eyes then by -douggy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Curses i thought that documentary the x-files said some oily aliens were there

  2. Reality check by ScumBiker · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was always under the impression that it was a mini-blackhole that wandered through our planet. that easily explains the lack of crater and the tree patterning. The worst part is, did I read this in a Larry Niven novel or watch it on Discovery channel? Ahh, the joys of waking up and feeling the Mountain Dew bubble it's way through my synapses.

    --
    --- Think of it as evolution in action ---
    1. Re:Reality check by Jerf · · Score: 5, Funny

      The worst part is, did I read this in a Larry Niven novel or watch it on Discovery channel?

      Both have roughly the same amount of truth to them. Larry, however, knows he's writing fiction.

  3. Re:And for many years ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Magnetic energy has yes been able to de feet nukes but that is stone age logic fried in a wok of logic of source code. Or some song like that ago, the hobbit said wu to fu dropped ring around hear.

  4. Re:The truth is out there by Araneas · · Score: 1, Funny
    Indications are that the Tsar employed a huge number of mathematicians to replicate and expand the work of Babbage. The were able to construct a difference engine of enormous size in a remote location well away from foreign agents.

    Unfortunately, they tried to implement a GUI called Okha '08. The metal gears and spools could not handle the added centriptal forces due to code bloat and vapourized in a cloud of molten brass causing the reported explosion.

    The Russians chose not to investigate in order to preserve their secret but the in the 60's the KGB, using records of the project used a sleeper agent to plant the seeds of Okha '08 in the fertile soil of Silicon Valley thus ensuring the downfall of western civilization.

  5. Re:Why is it fortunate? by gazbo · · Score: 2, Funny
    Hmm. Not sure about your use of probability there. Do you owe lots of money to casinos by any chance?
    It landed on black last time, so it's a mathematical certainty that it'll land on red this time!
  6. Re:Things that go BOOM in the night by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Funny


    > Its hard to imagine a fast-moving cloud of fine dust particles causing such damage.

    Never been on the wrong end of a sandblasting machine, have you?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  7. An asteroid, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Leave it to science to take the easy way out. I mean, come on! Every good, Bible-unbelieving atheist knows that's where God exploded.

  8. I always knew by BLAMM! · · Score: 3, Funny

    that it was the saucer section from the Enterprise J, that had crashed after time traveling into the past to kill grampa Berman before he could procreate. Of course nothing was ever found because the Division 6 of the Department of Temporal Correctness sent a clean-up crew. I've known this for years. How come nobody ever listens to me?

  9. Re:its behaviour by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 5, Funny

    Keep in mind that these witnesses were a bunch of Russians out in the middle of nowhere. For them, the room was probably moving around in an S-shaped path, if you know what I mean.

  10. It could have been a slimy purple meteor... by DocSnyder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now we know that (and where) Maniac Mansion existed - and Bernard finally managed to blow up Dr. Fred's home reactor.

  11. Re:Timetravel by Bobo+the+Space+Chimp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where are all the bodies?

    If you can send people thru time to arbitrary places, just dump 'em into the sun. No one will find them.

    --
    I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
  12. Re:There are problems with the asteroid hypothesis by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Funny

    > Wasn't there some murder mystery where Mr. Body
    > was offed by an ice knife or icicle?

    I remember a Lord Wimsey short story in which
    the victim was bludgeoned over the head with
    a frozen roast; the perpetrator almost got away
    with it by proceding to thaw and cook the
    murder weapon.

    Chris Mattern

  13. Re:If I were an author, I would write a book by dangermouse · · Score: 3, Funny

    You know, your title is backwards. If you wrote a book, you would be an author.

  14. News? by Veritan+Drelor · · Score: 2, Funny

    The asteroid hypothesis has been around for years. I recall an aricle in Sky & Telescope several years ago which said much the same thing. The blast was caused by atmospheric disruption of a carbonaceous chondrite; a low density asteroid.

    As for the lack of physical material, we shouldn't be particularly surprised about that. It took more than two decades for an expedition to reach the site, and it's a pretty swampy area as well. For comparison, a similar, though much smaller (basically just a fireball) event near Revelstoke in the 1960's left nothing to be found on the ground, even though people were in the area within hours. After twenty years, the chances of finding anything physical would be, pardon the pun, astronomical.

    Anywho, back to my original point: -1 to the Italians for redundancy.

    Per Ardua Ad Astra