the brutal explosion of 12 megatons that in 1908 put us in front of the horrors of space

On June 30, 1908, an H-bomb-sized explosion destroyed millions of trees for dozens of miles around. This is how Tunguska, a remote Siberian region, entered the history books. Colossal dimensions. The explosion was so wild that there was talk of antimatter in 1965 or even a tiny black hole in 1973. But those are not by far the most “interesting” explanations. There has been talk of UFOs crashing by accident or, attention, of a proof of concept of the famous ““death ray” by Nikola Tesla. However, the reality is much more prosaic and, today, scientists debate whether it was a small asteroid or the fragment of a comet. Because neither in 1921 (when the first expedition was sent to the place), nor in any of the subsequent expeditions, has anything resembling a crater been found. what happened. How then do we know that something happened in Tunguska that June morning? Well, because the whole world found out: seismographs throughout Asia and all of Europe captured the explosion; The Greenwich Observatory captured variations in atmospheric pressure due to the amount of air put into circulation; and, to top it all off, the suspended dust made the night in northern Eurasia so bright that it seemed like day. 12 megatons. That is to say, something happened in those uninhabited lands of the Irkutsk Oblast, there is no doubt about that. The most accepted theory is that this small meteorite caused a thermonuclear explosion at about 8 kilometers in altitude and with a power of 12 megatons. Everything after was death and destruction. Could it be repeated? The short answer is yes. In fact events like of the Eastern Mediterranean, Vitim’s or even that of Chelyabinsk show that it is possible to repeat itself. The long answer is that it is unlikely. Not only because these types of events are already something quite rarebut because (as in all these cases) when they occur, they usually occur in depopulated areas. It’s not a coincidence. The vast majority of the Earth’s surface is unpopulated. However, we must not let our guard down. years ago, the people of Microsiervos rescued a text of Arthur C. Clarke where I imagined what would happen if Tunguska happened in the heart of Europe: At 9:46 (Greenwich Mean Time) on the morning of September 11, in the exceptionally beautiful summer of the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fiery ball appear in the eastern sky. In a matter of seconds it became brighter than the Sun and as it moved across the sky—at first in complete silence—it left behind an undulating column of dust and smoke. At some point over Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of explosions, so violent that more than a million people were left with their hearing damaged forever. They were the lucky ones. Moving at fifty kilometers per second, a million tons of rock and metal fell onto the plains of northern Italy and destroyed the work of centuries in a flash of seconds. The cities of Padua and Verona were swept from the face of the Earth; and the last glories of Venice sank forever into the sea when the waters of the Adriatic thundered towards land after that devastating blow from heaven. The cultural impact. In the story, 600,000 people died, and the material damage was estimated at more than a trillion dollars.. Date with Rama It was published in 1973 and is, evidently, pure fiction. However, the story is suggestive: the capacity of outer space to compromise life on this planet is as certain as the dinosaurs were, 66 million years ago. That is why every year, on June 30, the Asteroid Day with the intention of raising awareness about this problem and discussing the possibilities we have to protect the Earth. Since this year, in addition, is recognized by the UN. Space is a wonderful place, but, like the nightis also dark and harbors horrors. It doesn’t hurt to remember it, at least once a year. In Xataka | Mysterious lights have been appearing in a remote valley in Norway since 1811. And we still don’t know what they are In Xataka | In 2011, something strange happened inside the Earth. We’ve been investigating it for years and we still don’t know what it was.

Starship has arrived in space, then has lost control. Spacex is costing horrors to get out of the bump

Long faces once again in Spacex, despite the advances that Starship’s ninth flight has achieved with respect to its predecessors. And the thing has ended badly for the ship anyway. First Super Heavy. The highest rocket in the world took off seven minutes late at 18:37 of May 27, local time in Starbase. The takeoff was perfect, with 33 of the 33 Raptor engines roaring at the same time, which marks the first reuse of a super heavy propeller. Booster 14 had first flown on flight 7. Although they were restored between Misiones, 29 of their 33 Raptor engines were second hand. One of them, on 314, has taken off today for the third and last time, moving forward in the rapid reuse objective of the two starship stages. Raptor 2 Restored Motors for Flight 9, including 314 with the reference to the PI number Disintegrated in full return. Two and a half minutes after takeoff, the ship turned on its six engines and separated from the propeller. Spacex has tried for the first time a super heavy turn in a controlled direction to save fuel. It has gone well. Next, Booster 14 initiated a more aggressive return sequence, with a higher angle of attack. Six and a half minutes after takeoff, when the propeller had to turn on its engines, it exploded in the air. Due to the experiments in the return maneuver, an explosion was not out of the pools, but it was the worst scenario in this flight phase. The data that Spacex has collected will help to avoid being repeated. Starship has reached space. Meanwhile, the upper stage of the rocket, the Starship 35 ship, continued its trip, reaching for the first time in three attempts a suborbital trajectory that would take it from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Although the failure streak of the two previous missions has broken (7 due to a harmonic response that caused propellant leaks and 8 for a hardware failure in a Raptor engine), the ship ended up failing anyway. It is the third prototype of the second generation of Starship. All have failed. Starlink satellite models (center) that were left without going out for the gate (right) The gate has not opened. One of the objectives of this flight was the deployment of eight new generation Starlink satellite models, which would have meant the first time Starship released a useful load. Scheduled for about 18 and a half minutes after takeoff, the test could not be carried out because the cargo bay gate, a mechanism that Spacex knows as “fish dispenser”, did not finish opening, forcing the attempt to leave, as happened on flight 3 of Starship. The ship has lost control. The other similarity of flight 9 with flight 3 is that Starship lost control 30 minutes after launch. The ship began to rotate uncontrolled after Spacex detected a leak in some of the fuel tank systems, many of which are used for the attitude control of the vehicle. As on flight 3, Spacex had to cancel another of the important experiments of this mission: the redempted of one of the Raptor engines in the space flight. But the worst of the failure was not to prove, once again, the improvements and experiments related to the thermal shield and the new ailerons of the ship. Spacex lost contact with Starship 35 during the reentry, thus ending a mission with more shadows than lights. The third second generation starship It has ended like its two predecessors: disintegrating.

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