Scientist Badyukov: Tunguska meteorite could destroy St. Petersburg, falling a little later
The Tunguska meteorite (Tunguska catastrophe), which in 1908 caused a powerful explosion over the Siberian taiga, could have destroyed St. Petersburg if it had entered the atmosphere a few minutes later. This was announced by the head of the laboratory of meteoritics and cosmochemistry of the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Badyukov, TASS reports .
“If it (the Tunguska cosmic body. – Gazeta.Ru) entered the atmosphere a few minutes later, it could explode over St. Petersburg or in its vicinity,” Badyukov said.
In his opinion, some stone buildings in the city could have survived, but mass casualties could not have been avoided in such a scenario.
The scientist said that now there is a theoretical model of the Tunguska event, which allows you to describe that phenomenon. The meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a very high speed, but did not “slow down” in the upper layers, where meteorites usually slow down, but “just picked up and evaporated.”
According to him, after that, the microparticles of the substance rose like a cloud and dissipated in the upper atmosphere, and the released energy heated the surrounding air enough to cause the damage described by scientists.
The explosion that took place in the region of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River on the morning of June 30, 1908 is considered the largest fall of a celestial body to Earth in recent history. It attracts scientists with many inexplicable details – for example, reliable large fragments of the “meteorite” were never found, despite a long search and many expeditions. Read more in the material “Gazety.Ru” .
