I have always found the Tunguska Event fascinating.
It is part fact, part mystery, and totally remarkable.
On June 30, 1908, 830 square miles of Siberian forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River were flattened, The pictures look like someone dumped a giant-size can of Lincoln Logs. Quakes were felt as far away as Europe and the United States. No one lived in the blast zone, but three people may have died from the shock wave. The explosion was equal to about 30 megatons of energy.
Most scientists think a meteorite caused the Tunguska Event. No crater has been found, and it is possible the outer space object disintegrated in the atmosphere.
However, no meteorites of any size have been found, which is odd. You’d think there would some fallout. This lack of evidence has resulted in many theories explaining the Tunguska Event, and now scientists have a new one.
Perhaps the asteroid did not smash into the Earth’s atmosphere. Maybe it skimmed off the air like a stone skipping across a pond. How cool is that! My mind boggles when I think of a rock, at least as long as a football field, entering the upper atmosphere, and then skipping off the denser air ten to fifteen miles above the Earth before heading back into space.
Models prove this could be possible, but this new idea is just one of many. Since no one witnessed the event (lucky for them), more research will be needed before one definitive answer can be proved.
But atmosphere skipping asteroids is one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard in a while.
This IS really interesting…