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When Comets Attack

Posted by Soulskill on from the fast-rocks-slow-children dept.

Red Flayer writes "Popular Mechanics is running a story that describes one of the more interesting explanations for the Tunguska explosion of 1908: 'Now, a controversial new scientific study suggests that a chunk of a comet caused the 5-10 megaton fireball, bouncing off the atmosphere and back into orbit around the sun. The scientists have even identified a candidate Tunguska object — now more than 100 million miles away — that will pass close to Earth again in 2045.' Note that Popular Mechanics' definition of 'close to' is somewhat different than most people's — the comet will be 3.8 million miles away at its closest. At any rate, the key to this theory is that hydrogen and oxygen in the ice shard exploded upon entering the atmosphere, resulting in the difficult-to-explain blast pattern (previous theories contend that the object must have 'skipped' on the atmosphere and then re-entered at the exact same spot). This would also, sadly, dash the theory that Nikola Tesla was responsible."

15 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. IOW by T+Murphy · · Score: 5, Funny

    The sun's trying to start a snowball fight.

    --
    My webcomic
  2. Fools! by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was the great Nikola Tesla who summoned the comet in the first place!

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    The enemies of Democracy are
    1. Re:Fools! by owlnation · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nikola Tesla destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognized the element of surprise.
      (with apologies to Chuck Norris)

    2. Re:Fools! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 5, Funny

      In fact, Nikola Tesla's chief weapon was surprise. And fear.

      His two weapons were fear and surprise. And ruthless efficiency.

      His three weapons were fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency. And an almost fanatical devotion to alternating power.

      I'll come in again...

  3. incredible artist rendition by ChrisCampbell47 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This artist's rendition of the explosion graced the back cover of this month's The Planetary Report (from The Planetary Society). It illustrates how the bolide likely blew up above the ground and hence produced no crater. The artist is Don Davis.

    --
    One simple rule for its versus it's
    1. Re:incredible artist rendition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      General Hammond painted that?

    2. Re:incredible artist rendition by erpbridge · · Score: 4, Informative

      Note... That's Don Davis, not to be confused with Don Davis, aka General Hammond from SG1.

      Although, I do believe that somewhere in the SG1 mythos it was suggested that Tunguska was either a failed Asgard or Goa'uld experiment, or that it was a weapons blast from orbit by a Ha'tak mothership.

      Not that that has anything to do with this article or anything....

  4. Re:This is new and controversial? by e9th · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe you did. Were you in Siberia in 1908?

  5. Could have been a huge deal. by mister_playboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think this is one of the great what-ifs of recent history... what if this event took place in a populated area, rather than in the Siberian woodlands? We still don't know what happened today, so how would people have dealt cognitively with it back in 1908 if thousands or even millions had died?

    I find it intriguing to consider.

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    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    1. Re:Could have been a huge deal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      What if Siberia were a great metropolis before this? Don't believe the lies!

    2. Re:Could have been a huge deal. by mister_playboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The main distinction of this event would have been the sudden impact of it... total destruction in the blink of an eye; whichis distinct from the slow "creeping death" of a plague. Unlike war, this would obviously seem to not be the work of human foes... what would the cause be ascribed to? God? Aliens? Would people be okay with the cause being "improbable interstellar event"?

      I just think it could have greatly impacted the values of the 20th century... would science be more important? Would people be even more superstitious? There are lots of possibilities.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
    3. Re:Could have been a huge deal. by smoker2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What would the Japanese have thought of Hiroshima if the US hadn't told them what it was ? This was 1908 not 1608. They did have some idea, they even went looking for the iron from the meteorite.

    4. Re:Could have been a huge deal. by T+Murphy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Had it hit a heavily populated area we would have a lot more data than a bunch of trees in the middle of nowhere and the reports from peasants. It was over a decade before a scientist went out there- Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik in 1921 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event. I would say there is a strong chance we would know what the thing actually was, which would allow for a calmer reaction than uneducated peasants fearing the apocalypse.

      Now, if it hit a major city during the cold war, it may have triggered a nuclear holocaust...

      --
      My webcomic
  6. Wait a minute... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Interesting

    all these comet theories are great, but how to they explain the extra Carbon 14 found in tree rings in that area, for that year? (The trees that hadn't been blown down, of course.)

    Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

  7. There's nothing mysterious about the impact shape by kmike · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It was shown back in 1966 that the butterfly shape of the fallen trees may be caused by the several explosions combined with the ballistic wave.

    The Russian researchers built a model of the site (1:10000), with explosion modeled by an explosive cord with an explosive charge at the end. The forest model was built from the tiny flexible wires with plastic crowns.

    They have shown that placing the cord at some inclination angle (close to 30 degrees) the impact shape was clearly resembling the butterfly shape of Tunguska event.

    The abstract (in Russian) is here:
    http://tunguska.tsc.ru/ru/science/conf/1966/zotkin/