When the sky exploded: Remembering Tunguska

On June 30, 1908, the largest asteroid impact in recorded history occurred in remote Siberia, Russia. We now celebrate Asteroid Day each year on the anniversary the Tunguska event, as it is now known. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-tunguska-explosion…

The fire and the fireball

A bright meteor is called a fireball. This one creates a backdrop to clouds of smoke from an actual fire that – as of Saturday – had burned some 9,000 acres and was only 10% contained, according to Inciweb. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photo-fireball-bighorn-fire-tuscon-june-2020…

Siri, What Time Is It in London?

John Gruber, writing at Daring Fireball: Nilay Patel [Editor-in-Chief of news website The Verge] asked this of Siri on his Apple Watch. After too long of a wait, he got the correct answer — for London Canada. I tried on my iPhone and got the same result. Stupid and slow is heck of a combination. You can argue that giving the…

The Tunguska explosion could have been caused by an asteroid that still orbits the sun

On a cool summer morning in 1908, a fireball appeared over northern Siberia. Eyewitnesses described a column of blue light that moved across the sky, followed by a tremendous explosion that leveled trees across more than 2,000 square kilometers. The explosion is consistent with a large meteor strike, but to this day, no evidence of a crater has been found. Now…