Early on the morning of July 30, 1908, the tranquility of the sparsely populated taiga was broken. A strong explosion destroyed the forest area of 2150 square kilometers. Had been felled about 80 million trees.
The witnesses talked about the immense fire that was visible for 60 miles. Two people were killed. The fire burned a lot of deer.
This incident, known as the Tunguska phenomenon, which was 185 times more powerful than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The rest of the world learned about it decades later, when Soviet scientists found the site of the fire and began to carry out there research.
The cause is unknown
Scientists have not been able to establish what happened. It was clearly not a meteor, because the crater was not there.
Maybe it was a meteorite exploding in the atmosphere? The resulting air waves could fell a forest.
On the ground left a long trail, so it is possible that the exploding body moved in the air.
The riddle will explain the new theory
Russian scientists have a new explanation. Above the Earth flew by asteroid made of iron, which continued to move further into space. The study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“The results are consistent with our hypothesis, which would explain one of the biggest mysteries of astronomy,” says head of research astronomer at the Siberian Federal University Daniel Khrennikov.
Together with his research group Khrennikov modeled on the computer the trajectory of the falling asteroids made of iron, rock and ice.
In the 1970s, Soviet scientists have suggested that above Ground could fly ice meteorite. This hypothesis is easily ruled out. Computer simulated situations show that the asteroid made of ice would have evaporated in the upper layer of the atmosphere.
Stone asteroid is unlikely to remain in the atmosphere for a longer period and too soon would have collapsed.
The asteroid flew back into space
According to calculations, the most probable could be the passage of an iron meteorite. He could fly through the Earth’s atmosphere three thousand miles keeping the speed of at least 11.1 kilometers per second. A meteorite is approaching the Earth surface by more than 11 kilometers.
This hypothesis can explain some peculiarities of the Tunguska phenomenon, for example, the lack of a crater from falling. It could also explain the strong flash of light, recorded at a great distance from the scene: it could cause a burning ball of iron flying through the atmosphere.
