Atomic bomb-sized explosion in Russia may have been caused by a black hole


The giant explosion that shook part of Russia more than a century ago has never been categorically explained.

And yet, some scientists believe it could be the result of a very close encounter with a mysterious form of black hole.

The extraordinary explosion occurred shortly after 7 a.m. on June 30, 1980, above the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Siberia.

Its force was estimated at 15 megatons of TNT, making it an estimated 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. EncyclopediaBritishRemarks.

The phenomenon flattened around 2,000 square kilometres of surrounding land – an area larger than London – and the impact was heard up to 1,000 kilometres away.

In 1927, Semyon Semyonov, a local farmer who lived 70 km south-southeast of the epicenter of the explosion, recalled his experience saying: “I sat on the steps of my house facing the north. Suddenly, the sky in the north split, and a fire appeared which spread over the entire northern part of the firmament.

“At that moment, I felt intense heat, as if my shirt had caught fire. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it away, but at that moment a powerful explosion threw me from the top of the steps.

“I passed out, but my wife ran out of the house and helped me up. After that we heard very loud bangs, as if stones were falling from the sky.

Other witnesses described seeing a “second sun” in the sky, as thunderous roars and dazzling lightning filled the sky and burning trees collapsed around them.

Others, in the village of Nizhne-Karelinskoye, about 450 km from the epicenter, reported seeing a “blindly glowing body of bluish-white color that flew overhead for about 10 minutes” and “looked like a tube “.

“There was a huge mass of black smoke and a loud bang, but no thunder,” says the local newspaper. Siberia reported just days after the disaster.

“The buildings were shaking and a fire of indefinite shape was bursting from a small dark cloud.

“All the inhabitants of the village fled their homes in terror. The women were crying and everyone thought Armageddon had arrived.

A map of where the explosion took place (Wikipedia via NASA)

The most puzzling aspect of this entire event was that, although experts had largely concluded that the event must have been the result of an asteroid impact, no crater was left behind.

Indeed, the absence of a gaping hole remains a source of great debate, even if some scientists claim that it would have formed a lake nearby.

Inevitably, this mystery gave rise to a whole host of theoretical explanations, including the somewhat far-fetched hypothesis that the explosion was caused by a primordial black hole passing directly through the Earth.

There are three main types of black holes, of which the smallest are the smallest.

The most common (those of medium size) are known as “stellar” black holes. They form when the center of a massive star collapses in on itself.

The largest are called “supermassive”, they were probably formed by the collapse of supermassive stars in the early universe, and can continue to grow by feeding on smaller objects or by merging with other black holes supermassive.

And the runts of the group, the primordials, are, in fact, purely hypothetical: scientists have yet to find definitive proof that they currently exist or ever existed.

According to NASA: “Scientists hypothesize that primordial black holes formed in the first second after the birth of the universe.

“At that time, pockets of hot matter could have been dense enough to form black holes, potentially with masses ranging from 100,000 times less than that of a paper clip to 100,000 times greater than that of the Sun.

“Then, as the universe rapidly expanded and cooled, the conditions for the formation of black holes disappeared. »

A simulated image showing how stellar black holes bend starry backgrounds and capture light, producing black hole silhouettes.(NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA)

And while it is quite possible that all primordial black holes evaporated as the cosmos aged, it is also possible that some still remain in the universe.

In fact, some experts have even suggested that mini primordial black holes, smaller than an atom, could safely pass through the Earth daily.

Then, in a 1973 article, published in the journal Naturea team of physicists based at the University of Texas, suggested that the Tunguska explosion could have been caused by a larger primordial black hole crashing through the planet.

The researchers proposed that a black hole with the mass of a large asteroid would explain the lack of an impact crater, as well as the ethereal blue “tube” mentioned by witnesses.

“Most of the radiation from the shock front would be in the ultraviolet vacuum and would be absorbed and reradiated at longer wavelengths,” the study authors wrote.

“There would be little hard X-ray radiation and the accompanying plasma column would appear deep blue.”

Experts then suggested that, even if it had not left a crater, the black hole could have left an escape route on the other side of the world.

“(The black hole) would penetrate the Earth and the rigidity of the rock would not allow any shock waves underground,” they explained.

“Because of its high speed and the fact that it loses only a small fraction of its energy passing through the Earth, the black hole should almost follow a straight line through the Earth, entering 30° from the horizon and exiting through the North Atlantic in the region 40°-50° N 30°-40° W.

“This output allows us to verify the entire hypothesis.”

The authors then recommended that investigations be conducted to look for shock waves and ocean disturbances in and around this potential “outlet” location.

Suffice it to say that no such evidence has been found since and the existence of primordial black holes remains an enigma.

The Tunguska explosion felled some 80 million trees(Leonid Kulik)

Meanwhile, if you want a more widely credited – though admittedly more prosaic – explanation for the Tunguska disaster – you should look to asteroids.

The widely accepted explanation is that an asteroid, or meteoroid, measuring approximately 50 to 80 meters (between 160 and 262 feet) in diameter, exploded in an airburst 10 to 14 kilometers (six to nine miles) above from the ground, like Science IFL Remarks.

Estimates suggest the sky missile weighed about 220 million pounds (99 million kilograms) and entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 54,000 kilometers (about 33,555 miles) per hour before breaking up into several fireballs.

The sudden release of energy from the explosion generated a powerful shockwave that radiated outwards, leveling the surrounding area.

But because the explosion occurred in the air, no impact craters were created.

However, the remoteness of the region where the disaster occurred and the limited instruments available at the time mean that we have no definitive proof of the cause of this extraordinary event.

The good news is that, according to Royal Museums GreenwichA Tunguska-type event should only occur, on average, once a century.

But wait, doesn’t that mean we’re late now…?

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