Compare three real meteor airburst cases side by side - Tunguska (1908), Chelyabinsk (2013), and a typical small bolide - then click any marker or button to replay its entry and see its published figures.
Published figures: Chelyabinsk released an estimated 440-500 kilotons TNT at an estimated 20-25 km altitude (NASA/JPL); Tunguska released an estimated 3-30 megatons TNT (commonly cited about 12 megatons) at an estimated 5-10 km altitude.
Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom. Click a marker or a button below the scene to replay that case's entry and see its exact figures.
Meteor Airburst Size Comparison 3D Explorer
This browser explorer places three real meteor airburst cases on one shared altitude column - Tunguska (1908), Chelyabinsk (2013), and a typical small bolide - so you can see at a glance why a 50-80 m object airbursts far lower and far more destructively than a 1 m object.
Chelyabinsk is the most thoroughly instrumented case: NASA/JPL puts its released energy at an estimated 440-500 kilotons TNT, from a stony asteroid an estimated 17-20 m across, airbursting at an estimated 20-25 km altitude (peak-brightness altitude commonly cited as 23.3 km). The shock wave still reached the ground and injured about 1,500 people, mostly from shattered window glass. Tunguska released far more energy - an estimated 3-30 megatons TNT, commonly cited around 12 megatons, from a 50-80 m object - but no crater was ever found; the airburst happened higher, at an estimated 5-10 km, and flattened about 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest with its shock wave alone.
The third case is not one historical event but a category: NASA/JPL's CNEOS Fireball and Bolide database, fed by U.S. government sensors, catalogues several dozen bright airbursts like this every year from meter-scale objects - typically well under 1 kiloton to a few kilotons, airbursting commonly between 20-45 km. Nearly all of them cause no ground damage at all, which is exactly the point of lining them up next to Tunguska and Chelyabinsk: size and altitude, not luck, decide the outcome.
- Three real cases plotted on one shared altitude column - Tunguska, Chelyabinsk, and a typical small bolide
- Each marker sits at its real published airburst altitude (1 scene unit = 1.3 km)
- Marker size follows a compressed log scale of relative released energy, disclosed as not to scale
- Click any marker or button to replay that case's entry trail falling to its real altitude
- Side-by-side table of impactor size, released energy, and airburst altitude for all three cases
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
Students use the shared altitude column to see why a 50-80 m object like Tunguska's airbursts so much higher and harder than a 1 m bolide; readers researching planetary defense use the comparison to understand why Chelyabinsk-sized objects (tens of meters) are the harder detection problem, since they are both common enough to matter and small enough to arrive with little warning.
| Case | Impactor size | Released energy | Airburst altitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunguska (1908) | an estimated 50-80 m | an estimated 3-30 megatons TNT (commonly cited about 12 megatons) | an estimated 5-10 km |
| Chelyabinsk (2013) | an estimated 17-20 m | an estimated 440-500 kilotons TNT | an estimated 20-25 km (peak-brightness altitude 23.3 km) |
| Typical small bolide | around 1 m | typically well under 1 kiloton to a few kilotons TNT | commonly 20-45 km |
This page is a side-by-side comparison of all three cases at once. For one case in close-up detail, the collection also has the Chelyabinsk Meteor 3D Explorer - that page is a single-event walkthrough, while this page compares three cases on one shared altitude and energy scale. For a real-mission asteroid-deflection story instead of a natural airburst, see the DART Asteroid Deflection 3D Explorer.
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached; no scene data is sent to a server.
This is an educational approximation, not a physical simulation - marker altitude is the real published figure, but marker size is a compressed log scale of relative energy, not a to-scale blast radius.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Meteor Airburst Size Comparison 3D Explorer show?
Three real meteor airburst cases - Tunguska (1908), Chelyabinsk (2013), and a typical small bolide - plotted on one shared altitude column, each marker sized on a compressed scale of relative released energy.
Why did Chelyabinsk's shock wave reach the ground but Tunguska's crater was never found?
Chelyabinsk airburst lower, at an estimated 20-25 km, so more of its shock wave energy reached the ground and injured about 1,500 people. Tunguska airburst higher, at an estimated 5-10 km, and released far more total energy into flattening forest by shock wave alone - no crater formed because the object never reached the ground.
How often do small bolides like the third case happen?
NASA/JPL's CNEOS Fireball and Bolide database, fed by U.S. government sensors, catalogues several dozen bright events like this every year. Nearly all release well under 1 kiloton to a few kilotons and cause no ground damage.
Is the marker size in the scene the real blast radius?
No. Marker size follows a compressed log scale of relative released energy so a 12-megaton case and a 1-kiloton case are both visible on screen at once - it is not a physically-to-scale blast radius.
Is the marker altitude real?
Yes. Each marker's vertical position is the case's real published airburst altitude (1 scene unit represents 1.3 km), sourced from NASA/JPL and peer-reviewed Tunguska literature.
Is this a physics simulation?
No. It is an educational comparison of real, published figures - the falling entry trail is a visual replay, not a re-entry physics simulation.