Supports· moderateYDIH-E022
Napier 2010: the fragmented-comet / Taurid scenario
- what the source states
- A dynamical model proposing that Earth encountered dense debris from the fragmentation of a formerly giant (roughly 50–100 km) short-period comet — whose residue survives as the Taurid Complex — with such encounters capable of producing multiple dispersed airbursts and surface impacts within hours, around the Younger Dryas onset epoch.
- what we infer
- The scenario that modernized the hypothesis: it explains why no single crater need exist and gives the event an astronomical genealogy. It is a possibility argument — nothing in it shows the encounter happened, and no recovered material ties any YD deposit to the Taurids.
- limitations
- Giant-comet fragmentation histories are model-dependent; the 12.8-ka crossing is posited, not derived from observation.