Tunguska Impact
Simulation of the Tunguska Airburst
There has been much debate about what caused this mysterious explosion. First, there is no crater at Tunguska, nor has there been any meteoritic debris from a possible asteroid. The consensus among scientists, therefore, is that a plummeting comet was the cause. Scientists conclude this because a comet is primarily made of ice which, if the nucleus was small enough, would melt away before it struck the ground. To see what this event might have been like, click on the picture above.
The explosion sent out a shockwave that knocked down all of the trees in a radial pattern. It left orange, noctiluscent clouds glowing so brightly, that for three nights people as far away as Eastern Europe could read their newspapers by its light.
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