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Issue A&A Volume 377, Number 3, October III 2001 Page(s) 1081 - 1097 Section The solar system DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20011054

A&A 377, 1081-1097 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011054

Probable asteroidal origin of the Tunguska Cosmic Body

P. Farinella¹, L. Foschini², Ch. Froeschlé³, R. Gonczi³, T. J. Jopek⁴, G. Longo^{5, 6} and P. Michel<sup>3

1</sup>  Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
²  Istituto TeSRE -CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
³  Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Département Cassini, URA CNRS 1362, BP 229, 06304 Nice, France
⁴  Obserwatorium Astronomiczne Universytetu A. Mickiewicza, Sloneczna 36, 60286 Poznan, Poland
⁵  Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Italy
⁶  INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Italy

(Received 18 May 2001 / Accepted 17 July 2001)

Abstract
The complete characterisation of the Tunguska event of 30th June 1908 is still a challenge for astrophysicists. We studied the huge amount of scientific literature to select data directly available from measurements and we introduced parameters calculated by the application of models, and evaluated other possibilities. We then selected a range of meaningful atmospheric trajectories, from which we extracted a set of possible orbits. We obtained 886 orbits, which were used to estimate the probabilities of the possible origin of the Tunguska Cosmic Body (TCB). We found that the probability that the TCB moved on an asteroidal path is higher than it moved on a cometary one, 83% to 17% , respectively.

Key words: minor planets -- asteroids -- celestial mechanics -- stellar dynamics -- methods: numerical

Offprint request: G. Longo Giuseppe.Longo@bo.infn.it

© ESO 2001

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