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Projects: Target Earth

Updates

June 26, 2008 - Target Earth: How Prepared Are We?

It exploded over Siberia – this object from space – and leveled 2,000 square kilometers of forest, flattening pine trees like matchsticks. June 30 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska event, the day in 1908 when an asteroid or comet entered Earth’s atmosphere and, in effect, fired an astronomical warning shot across our bow. How prepared is Earth today to avoid disaster from the skies?

April 15, 2008 - The Tunguska Riddle: How Powerful was the Greatest Asteroid Impact in Recorded History?

A column of bluish light as bright as the Sun streaked through cloudless skies above the Taiga forest.  Minutes later, local herdsmen and recent settlers saw a brilliant flash followed by the sound of explosions, like an artillery barrage from a great battle raging over the horizon. An ashen cloud rose in the distance, and could be seen from hundreds of miles away. And then – silence.

The place: the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in central Siberia, northeast of Lake Baikal; the time: 7:14 a.m. on the morning of June 30, 1908. Within minutes the "Tunguska Event," the largest asteroid impact in modern recorded history, was over.