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Another major explosion theorized to be caused by bolides is the 1626 Wanggongchang Explosion[1] in Beijing which is considered one of the major causes of the f
by ginko 5y ago
Another major explosion theorized to be caused by bolides is the 1626 Wanggongchang Explosion[1] in Beijing which is considered one of the major causes of the fall of the Chinese Ming dynasty.
Although having its epicenter in the middle of a gunpowder factory would of course also heavily imply a gunpowder explosion (or maybe both).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanggongchang_Explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanggongchang_Explosion
- thriftwy 5y agoBolides will very rarely hit a city precisely, especially in the periods where cities were small and not sprawling. Moreover, they usually fly tangentially and cover a huge area (such as, Chelyabinsk meteor was also seen from Yekaterinburg, 200 km away). There should be a lot of evidence towards it before it to be accepted as the primary cause (and not an omen, for example)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dboreham 5y agoThis isn't unusual. In 2009 I was sitting in my hot tub in Montana and saw this event, which hit in Utah, 500 miles away : https://www.nevadameteorites.com/nevadameteorites/November_18,2009_fireball.html https://www.nevadameteorites.com/nevadameteorites/November_1...
- etrautmann 5y agoInteresting! How do you know that this was a meteorite and not another thing that went wrong at Dugway?
- thriftwy 5y agoThing is, it did not obliterate any specific area with 25 km radius.
- dboreham 5y agoNo, high altitude burst.
- Keysh 5y agoThe suggestion in the article is that the bolide impact (or airburst) was well outside the city, to the SW, since a lot of the evidence suggests a blast moving from SW to NE through the city.
- richthegeek 5y agoThis seems like the most obvious candidate for Occam's Razor, although stranger things have happened. Part of me wonders if it's easier to 'invent' a comet strike or otherwise imply divine intervention as a way of avoiding blame for putting a gunpowder factory in the middle of a city.
- SyzygistSix 5y agoA comet strike, which is surely divine intervention, would imply they lost the Mandate of Heaven, I would think. So I think two different ways of saying the same thing.
- yyyk 5y agoIn the political context of 17th century China (and many premodern polities), it's much preferable to blame a scapegoat official for putting a factory in the wrong place than to blame divine intervention. The former means the government executes a couple of people. The latter meant to most people that the government has lost 'the Mandate of Heaven' and is ready to be overthrown. That's extremely bad news to the government.
- BBC-vs-neolibs 5y agoYou can see similar dynamics now. If an explosion was caused by a collapsed buerocracy and a corrupt government ignoring basic safety standards, it looks bad on the government. It can be more convenient to imagine some evil terrorist organisation.
- laurent123456 5y agoWhat a twisted logic they had back then. City got destroyed because of an incompetent government? That's fine, we can keep trusting them. City got destroyed by a meteorite? No way we can ever trust them again, they've lost the Mandate of Heaven! In practice I would assume though that people weren't much different than today, and the Mandate of Heaven trick would only work if the government doesn't appear to be too incompetent.
- 5y ago