It is June 30, 1908, and one of the most powerful explosions in history has just occurred.
The toungoos are in shock. No one understands what has just happened. Fortunately, no death is to be deplored. There are just some light injured. The explosion occurred in a place far from inhabited areas. A few days later, some go to explore the devastated forest. They have no doubt: the God Ogdy expressed his anger …
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A glow in the middle of the night sheds light on all Europe
The same evening, at the other end of Europe, Maria, from the window of her London apartment, manages to read her book in the middle of the night thanks to a diffuse light from the sky. She does not understand this phenomenon. But is delighted. It’s pretty pleasant, in the end.
Other fellow citizens do not see it in the same eye. This intense light holds them awake. But where does it come from?
This question invades spirits. And others are not long in being posed, when we understand that what happened in Toungouska and this light are correlated. But scientists were not interested in it until 20 years later, in 1927.
Why does the entry into the atmosphere of an asteroid, which crashed into Siberia, arouse concern?
What could have caused more than 2,000 km² of damage, with no less than 80 million burned trees? And where does this light that awakened Europeans come from? During these twenty long years without research, and again after, the most extravagant explanations were mentioned: a nuclear explosion; a collision with a mass of antimatter; the creation of a mini black hole; an underground storm; The result of the experiences of the American Nikola Tesla; Nuclear bombs tests or even an UFO invasion.
This explosion questions, and it will do it all the more from the first discoveries. The Russians are the first to decide: you have to go see what happened. It is not an easy task, the taiga is a hostile desert, miles from the practicable roads. Led by Leonid Kulik, the team of researchers leaves to thorough this mysterious incident. They try to find an impact or a crater, but nothing helps, they discover no trace. By observing these charred or lying trees on the ground, Kulik hypothesizes a comet who would have exploded in the atmosphere before spreading his dust on the ground.
A few years later, a new team found metallic particles in the trees, confirming the hypothesis of a cosmic object. Other research, Italian this time, are more leaning towards an asteroid that would have exploded. They arrive at this conclusion after having analyzed Lake Cheko, which would be for them a secondary crater formed by a fragment of the celestial body.
And this is where the long debate between scientists begins.
Some imagine that it is a comet, rich in ice, therefore without lasting crater. The others rather lean for an iron asteroid that would have exploded at altitude. One thing is certain: this cosmic object, more than 50 m in diameter, was launched at a crazy speed of 55,000 km/h, making it 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Research continues, and another event sheds light on the mystery. In 2013, a new explosion, close to a Russian city, Tcheliabinsk, made many material damage and more than 1,500 injured. It is an asteroid 19 meters in diameter which exploded at an altitude of 20 km. The explosion is 30 times less powerful than that of Toungouska. Thanks to technological advances and this event which fills the database, NASA hypothesizes an asteroid which would have exploded at 5–10 km altitude, causing a sufficient shock wave to shave a forest without impact in the ground.
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A hypothesis is confirmed
Regarding Maria and her night reading, scientists explain that the explosion of Toungouska has projected immense quantities of dust and fine particles in the upper atmosphere. The latter reflected sunlight for several days and at a very long distance, even after sunset. Result: the sky remained bright all night in several regions of Europe, including London, where the window of Maria’s apartment allowed him to enjoy this event and read his book in the middle of the night.
NASA research will be corroborated in 2020 by Sergei Karpov, of the Federal University of Siberia, which, returning to the scene, also leaning for the hypothesis of the iron asteroid. However, the fact that there is really no visible impact is surprising. New recent expeditions are still taking place to explore the funds of Lake Cheko in search of sediments to analyze, to try to decide whether this lake is the crater so sought after or if it pre -existed in its current form in the explosion.
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Even today, the debates remain open, even if the asteroid hypothesis seems to prevail. Some elements still escape scientists, but one thing is certain, UFOs, the God Ogdy or “learned” experiences have no place in the explanations of this mystery.
More than a hundred years after the explosion, scientists agreed that if it had taken place elsewhere than in this almost deserted region where the toungous lives, the consequences would have been catastrophic, with no doubt many victims.
That morning, Semenow and his daughter, escaped the worst, marked forever by this blinding light on the heart of the forest.
