Hydrocode simulations of asteroid airbursts and constraints for Tunguska

Robertson, Darrel; Mathias, Donovan

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.10.017

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The problem of the motion in the Earth's atmosphere of a large space body (SB), capable of falling onto the surface of the planet in the form of meteorites, is now of great interest. Equally urgent concern is the study of the conditions for the passage of such bodies through the upper atmosphere, even without collision with the Earth's surface, since the shock waves produced by this passage have a colossal destructive effect (Stulov et al 1995;Bronshten 1983;Martin 1966;Loh 1963;Hawkins 1964;Andruschenko et al 2013;Nemchinov et al 1999;Robertson & Mathias 2019;Morrison & Robertson 2019;Tom Gehrels 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the possibility of through passage of asteroid bodies across the Earth’s atmosphere

Khrennikov

Titov

Ershov

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We have studied the conditions of through passage of asteroids with diameters 200, 100, and 50 m, consisting of three types of materials – iron, stone, and water ice, across the Earth’s atmosphere with a minimum trajectory altitude in the range 10–15 km. The conditions of this passage with a subsequent exit into outer space with the preservation of a substantial fraction of the initial mass have been found. The results obtained support our idea explaining one of the long-standing problems of astronomy – the Tunguska phenomenon, which has not received reasonable and comprehensive interpretations to date. We argue that the Tunguska event was caused by an iron asteroid body, which passed through the Earth’s atmosphere and continued to the near-solar orbit.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the possibility of through passage of asteroid bodies across the Earth’s atmosphere

Khrennikov

Titov

Ershov

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…The fallen trees partially burned across an area of ~ 200 km 2 with a radius of ~ 8 km. Estimated wind velocities were ~ 40–70 m/s (144–250 km/h), greater than an EF-3 tornado 180 . Tunguska’s blast pressure not only toppled trees but also pressed the tree fluids from the bark into the pre-existing tree rings of the surviving trees 181 .…”

Section: Analogous Destruction Eventsmentioning

confidence: 83%

A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

Bunch

LeCompte

Adedeji

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000× more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A city-wide ~ 1.5-m-thick carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of shocked quartz (~ 5–10 GPa); melted pottery and mudbricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; Fe- and Si-rich spherules; CaCO3 spherules from melted plaster; and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite, and quartz. Heating experiments indicate temperatures exceeded 2000 °C. Amid city-side devastation, the airburst demolished 12+ m of the 4-to-5-story palace complex and the massive 4-m-thick mudbrick rampart, while causing extreme disarticulation and skeletal fragmentation in nearby humans. An airburst-related influx of salt (~ 4 wt.%) produced hypersalinity, inhibited agriculture, and caused a ~ 300–600-year-long abandonment of ~ 120 regional settlements within a > 25-km radius. Tall el-Hammam may be the second oldest city/town destroyed by a cosmic airburst/impact, after Abu Hureyra, Syria, and possibly the earliest site with an oral tradition that was written down (Genesis). Tunguska-scale airbursts can devastate entire cities/regions and thus, pose a severe modern-day hazard.

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“…Impacts by extraterrestrial objects continue today, as evidenced by Tunguska (1908) (e.g., Farinella et al, 2001;Kvasnytsya et al, 2013;Robertson and Mathias, 2019) and Chelyabinsk (2013) (Popova et al, 2013;Artemieva and Shuvalov, 2016). Cometary dust particles are regularly seen Total delivered material assumes comets comprised of 10% of impactors at a rate of 10 12 kg/year (minimum) (Morbidelli et al, 2018) to 10 13 kg/year (maximum) (Chyba et al, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cometary Glycolaldehyde as a Source of pre-RNA Molecules

2020

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Over 200 molecules have been detected in multiple extraterrestrial environments, including glycolaldehyde (C 2 (H 2 O) 2 , GLA), a two-carbon sugar precursor that has been detected in regions of the interstellar medium. Its recent in situ detection on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and through remote observations in the comae of others provides tantalizing evidence that it is common on most (if not all) comets. Impact experiments conducted at the Experimental Impact Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center have shown that samples of GLA and GLA mixed with montmorillonite clays can survive impact delivery in the pressure range of 4.5 to 25 GPa. Extrapolated to amounts of GLA observed on individual comets and assuming a monotonic impact rate in the first billion years of Solar System history, these experimental results show that up to 10 23 kg of cometary GLA could have survived impact delivery, with substantial amounts of threose, erythrose, glycolic acid, and ethylene glycol also produced or delivered. Importantly, independent of the profile of the impact flux in the early Solar System, comet delivery of GLA would have provided (and may continue to provide) a reservoir of starting material for the formose reaction (to form ribose) and the Strecker reaction (to form amino acids). Thus, comets may have been important delivery vehicles for starting molecules necessary for life as we know it.

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Hydrocode simulations of asteroid airbursts and constraints for Tunguska

Cited by 30 publications

References 40 publications

On the possibility of through passage of asteroid bodies across the Earth’s atmosphere

On the possibility of through passage of asteroid bodies across the Earth’s atmosphere

A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

Cometary Glycolaldehyde as a Source of pre-RNA Molecules

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