June 30 is Asteroid Day to raise awareness of opportunities & risks posed by asteroids, their role in the formation of our solar system, their impact in space resources & importance of protecting Earth from impact. π§ͺπ‘π’π June 30, 1908 an approximately 12-megaton explosion that occurred near the π§΅1/n
Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, likely due to a meteor air burst due to the explosion of a 50-60 m stony asteroid - the Tunguska event. Luckily this is a sparsely populated area of Siberian taiga, but itβs estimated that 80 million trees were π§΅2/n
flattened.
This is my wee little asteroid linocut (on paper 4β x 4β with 2β x 2β printed area).
Fun fact: Asteroid Day was co-founded by astrophysicist/rock musician Dr Brian May of Queen
π§΅3/3
Itβs actually still a subject of research and debate. The most popular hypothesis is that it was an asteroid which either exploded in or bounced off the atmosphere.
So thereβs no major crater but some researchers believe there are smaller craters from fragments.
So argue damage to trees and
isotopes analysis is consistent with debris (proportions of things like nickel, iron, silicate, magnetite and iridium) from an extraterrestrial body. But not all authors agree.
So maybe. Itβs a very hard place to reach and study and itβs not straightforward.
