But the
Tunguska airburst stands as the most powerful impact event in recorded human history, and it remains enigmatic, as scientists don't know the origin of the object or whether it was an asteroid or a comet.
In comparison, the
Tunguska airburst heavily damaged 830 square miles, or 2,150 square kilometers of land.
On that day a large explosion occurred in the sky over the Podkamennaya
Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia.
Fortunately, the chance of something like a
Tunguska fireball exploding over a major city is slim, Harris says.
But it is still possible the next
Tunguska would take us by surprise, and although we are much better at finding larger asteroids, that does us no good if we are not prepared to do something about them."
A 100-foot meteor hurtling at a speed of 9 miles per second detonates in the sky near the Podkamennaya
Tunguska river in Siberia, Russia.
On that date in 1908, around 800 square miles of forest in
Tunguska, Siberia, was destroyed by an asteroid strike.
Scientists say all of them need to be discovered and want June 30 - the date of the
Tunguska strike that flattened 800 square miles of Siberia in 1908 - to be made Asteroid Day.
The
Tunguska event was 1908; if that rock had hit a major city instead of Siberia, loss of life would have been awful.
In 1908, the
Tunguska Event took place in Russia as an asteroid exploded above Siberia, leaving 800 square miles of scorched or blown-down trees.
The most dramatic asteroid impact in recent times occurred when an object exploded over
Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908 with an energy yield equivalent to between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of TNT.
Impacts as powerful as the famous
Tunguska event of 1908, which was comparable to a 10-million-ton blast, should take place every few thousand years.
It was the largest object to hit the Earth since the
Tunguska event of 1908, when an exploding comet or asteroid destroyed 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest.
This makes it the most energetic event reported since the 1908
Tunguska meteor in Siberia.
