2023-06-30 16:36:24
International Asteroid Day, also known as Asteroid Day is celebrated on June 30th and this date is not a coincidence, it was on June 30th, 1908 that the largest asteroid fall ever witnessed by humanity in the modern era occurred.
The Tunguska Event was recorded in present-day Siberia, Russia, at the time and for decades (perhaps even today) is a matter of debate. The fact that no crater related to the fall of the celestial object was found, even after several expeditions and searches, generated several discussions in the field of astronomy.
Recent research indicates that what caused the explosion that devastated thousands of square kilometers in the region near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River was originated from the air displacement resulting from the destruction of the asteroid on its entry into Earth.
To get an idea of the size of the destruction caused by the Asteroid, it is estimated that the explosion had a degree between 5 and 30 megatons of TNT, something equivalent to a thousand times the Hiroshima bomb. Luckily, Vanavara, the city closest to the explosion site, was more than 60 km away, and was not destroyed by the event. No deaths from the Tunguska have been confirmed, despite some speculation.
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However, this did not prevent 2,000 km² of forest from being devastated. Residents of Vanavara were able to see the huge ball of fire in the sky. In the days that followed, night skies in Asia and Europe were ablaze, and the explosion was recorded at several seismic stations across the continent.
In the following years, several expeditions were carried out in the region in search of craters. The first of them by the Russian Leonid Kulik. Despite several localized holes, none of them were considered to have been the asteroid impact receiver.
Meteor crash site Image: Kulik
What did the Tunguska event do to the world?
“It was very shocking, as it was one of the biggest impact events that humanity can witness”, explains Marcelo Zurita, president of the Associação Paraibana de Astronomia and columnist for the Digital Look. “To this day, there is a controversial fence about what caused this impact. Some speak of a comet that would have fallen here and, because it is mostly made of ice, would have been vaporized and therefore we have no meteorite fragments associated with this fall”, he adds.
There is also a second aspect commented by Zurita. Since today we know that a rocky asteroid can also be destroyed in the atmosphere. The astronomer comments that no craters were located in a place where the celestial body could have fallen. “There is a lake where it is suspected that it may have received the impact, but until today nothing has been confirmed”, he concludes.
Devastation caused by the Tunguska impact compared to the area of the city of São Paulo, SP – Image: Asteroid Day Brasil
Although there were no confirmed fatalities from the event, residents of the city of Vanavara saw the fireball and felt the heat. “At breakfast time I was sitting on the side of the house at Vanavara Trading Post [65 quilômetros ao sul da explosão]facing north. […] Suddenly I saw that directly to the north, over the Tunguska road from Onkoul, the sky split in two and the fire appeared high and wide over the forest. [como Semenov mostrou, cerca de 50 graus acima – nota de expedição]. The split in the sky grew and the entire north side was covered in fire. At that moment I became so hot that I could not stand it, as if my shirt were on fire; from the north side, where the fire was, there came a strong heat. I wanted to rip off my shirt and throw it, but then the sky closed and a loud thud sounded and I was thrown a few meters ahead”, said S. Semenov, to Kulik, during a Russian expedition in 1930.
As Zurita explained in his column, International Asteroid Day has been officially celebrated since 2016. The definition was given by the UN for a day of public awareness about asteroids, their role in the formation of our solar system and the importance to defend our planet from future impacts.
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