Asteroid Comet Impact Hazards - Florida International University

The Sky Has Split Apart - The Cosmic Mystery of the Century
Over the next several Tunguska expeditions we can expect emphasis on a search for cosmic traces of the
1908 event. One of the difficulties of isotopic anomalies research, however, is positively identifying the
presumed cosmic matter as truly cosmic and not terrestrial in origin. For the present, Kolesnikov and
Galli are the leading investigators in this area.
At this stage of the Tunguska investigations the comet and asteroid theories appear to be the most
promising, but the matter is far from being closed.
Why is it important to find the answer?
According to Academician Vasiliev, "Had such a cosmic body exploded over Europe instead of the
desolate region of Siberia, the number of human victims would have been 500,000 or more, not to
mention the ensuing ecological catastrophe. Two years ago an asteroid of probably several hundred
yards diameter passed Earth at a distance of only 700,000 kilometers. On an astronomical scale that is
very close. The Tunguska episode marks the only event in the history of civilized man when Earth has
collided with a truly large celestial object, although innumerable such collisions have occurred in the
geological past. And many more are bound to occur."13
Vasiliev stresses that is why continued investigations of the Tunguska event are important--because it
will happen again, sometime. Only by knowing what the object was, and by knowing its devastating
biological consequences, will the scientific and medical communities be in a position to deal with such a
40-megaton, or greater, cataclysm in the future. It is not necessary to remind this group that there are 23
Apollo objects in orbit out there in our back yard. And there are 500,000 asteroids with adiameter in
excess of 1 kilometer; and those objects are continually colliding, fragmenting, and flying off into erratic
orbits.
Vasiliev and his colleagues have managed to save 4,000 square kilometers of the Tunguska region as a
national reserve for the next 20 years. "But we think this is not enough for scientific research," he says,
"and that is why our initiative now is to protect the reserve under the supervision of UNESCO, because
this is not only a matter of concern to Russia, but of the whole world."14
He also stresses the importance of American and other foreign investigative teams with sophisticated
technology joining the ongoing Tunguska international expeditions. "We need your advanced
technology and your well-equipped laboratories, which we lack," he said.
"And to enhance our preparedness for such a catastrophe," Vasiliev adds, "programs such as the
American military program of Star Wars could be used not as a means of nations mutually threatening
each other but as a united effort to survey the vicinity of space near our planet to be on the lookout for
new cosmic invaders."15
REFERENCES
http://www.galisteo.com/tunguska/docs/splitsky.html (5 of 6)12/5/2005 4:30:58 PM