NEO News (06/26/07) Congressional Hearings & Tunguska

This edition of NEO News deals with four topics: (1) a request for a Congressional hearing on NEOs; (2) a new paper suggesting that a fragment of Tunguska hit the ground; (2) a news report on the continuing controversy that surrounds the NASA NEO Report; and (4) a NEO documentary by Space Viz Productions.

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(2) A paper by L. Gasperini and colleagues has been published suggesting that a small lake about 8 km from the "ground zero" is a possible secondary impact crater for the 1908 Tunguska event. This interesting result is based on the location and morphology of the lake, but none of the usual signatures of an impact (extraterrestrial material, shocked quartz, shatter cones) has been found. These authors intend to drill at the site next summer, but given the location in a swamp with a small river actually flowing through the lake, it may be difficult to establish a connection with the Tunguska impact. 

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