Tunguska Witness for Impact Earth

"Tunguska Witness" for the NASA Immersive Earth fulldome show "Impact Earth"

A little after 7am on June 30, 1908, a large explosion occurred in the sky over Siberia. A meteor estimated to be roughly 60 meters in size, broke up several miles above the ground, the explosion causing widspread damage for many square miles around the site. Acres of forest trees were knocked over and burned in a pattern that pointed back towards the center of the blast. Scientific expeditions later visited the site to examine the devastation that was similar to that found after the Mount St. Helens event.

The scientists collected eyewitness accounts from many of the farmers, herders and other people who lived in the area. Quite a substancial amount of data is available and much can be accurately visualized from the information. Using these accounts, Home Run Pictures' animators created a sequence of scenes for use in the fulldome planetarium show, Impact Earth. We show the meteor as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, heading in a north western direction across Asia towards an area called Tunguska.

We animated a Russian farmer doing his work early in the morning who hears the oncoming fireball and turns to watch as it roars across the sky. Then the explosion blasts through the forest, toppling trees as they catch fire. A large, possibly mushroom-like cloud was reported visible hundreds of miles away.

This dramatic fulldome sequence for "Impact Earth" will initially premier at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Burke Baker Planetarium and then will be available for licensed distribution as part of the NASA Immersive Earth Project. The scene was created using Maya Unlimited software for the modeling, animation and rendering and Shake software for compositing.

Click here for Quicktime movie of the Tunguska Witness