Computational Physics,
Planetary Defense,
and Impact Modeling

Airburst Misinformation

Meteoritics and Planetary Science has just published a paper by an international team of impact and planetary defense experts led by Mark Boslough, titled “Preventing and Correcting Spread of Misinformation about Near Earth Objects, Impacts, Airbursts, and Planetary Defense: Case Studies”.🔗

Scientists have become increasingly alarmed by disinformation campaigns and attacks by conspiracy theorists and anti-science activists who have targeted climate researchers and medical professionals. Members of the planetary defense community are taking measures to counter misinformation that is amplified by social media, artificial intelligence, and predatory journals. The efforts include post-publication review of papers that may contain errors, or that may not adhere to the standards of evidence-based science.

Mark Boslough pioneered the use of nuclear weapons laboratory hydrocodes to model meteoritic airbursts for planetary defense risk assessment and published the first 3D simulation of the 1908 Tunguska airburst in remote Siberia. His speculative hypothesis that the mysterious Libyan Desert Glass was formed by a Type 2 "touchdown" airburst was one of Discover Magazine's Top 100 Science Stories of 2006. It also spawned fringe beliefs that a shower of airbursts changed Earth's climate, leading ot the collapse of an ancient advanced civilization, and that a Tunguska-sized airburst destroyed several ancient settlements including Sodom and Gomorrah. His analysis of the archaeological evidence demonstrated that the sedimentary features are inconsistent with directional flow and destruction that would be generated by a low-altitude Type 2 touchdown airburst, and that contaminants and other materials have been misidentified as impact proxies. Nevertheless, Boslough and his colleagues argue that a hypothetical Taurid meteor stream might contain Tunguska-sized fragments that could increase the risk to our planet from an impact or airburst on in the years 2032 and 2036.