In Searching for Comet P/Tunguska-1908
T. Yu. Galushina1, E. M. Drobyshevski2, M. E. Drobyshevski2
1Scientific and Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics of Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
2Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia
Abstract:
The reason for the horizontal turn of the Tunguska–1908 bolide trajectory
remains difficult to understand. It finds explanation, however, in the
New Explosive Cosmogony of minor bodies as having been caused by an
explosion of a part (Μ up to 1012 g) of the comet nucleus whose ices
contained products of their electrolysis, 2H2 + O2. In detonation,
this part was repelled from the more massive unexploded nucleus remnant,
changed the direction of its own motion by ~10° and imparted its kinetic
energy, in expanding and slowing down, to the air in producing an effect
of a high-altitude explosion. On passing through the Earth's atmosphere,
the unexploded remnant again entered a heliocentric orbit (the Vernadskiy's
hypothesis, 1932). A search for this comet, P/Tunguska–1908, among the 6077
known NEAs shows the 2005 NB56 object to be the most appropriate candidate
for a number of its parameters (its size is ≈ 170 m,
P = 2.106 y, e = 0.473 and i = 6.8°). Back integration of its orbit without
allowing for non-gravitational effects suggests that it had passed the
Earth on June 27, 1908 at a distance of 0.0659 AU. It is quite possible
that a proper inclusion of even fairly weak non-gravitational forces might
make its orbit consistent with parameters of the Tunguska bolide.
Key words:
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Near Earth Objects (NEOs), Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), Tunguska, horizontal turn of the trajectory, New Explosive Cosmogony of minor bodies, explosion of a part of the comet nucleus, comet nucleus ice, products of electrolysis, detonation, kinetic energy imparted, effect of a high-altitude explosion, the Earth's atmosphere, a heliocentric orbit, non-gravitational effects.