I hope they find the truth behind the event. Rumors were abound a ufo crashed at the time.


Russian scientist claims to have found asteroid fragments from mysterious explosion in Siberia in 1908



Devastation: The Tunguska Event in June 1908 saw a mysterious blast more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb flatten trees over an 800 square mile radius, knock people from their feet and shatter windows

No Lynn no UFO from what I know it was a meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere .There are some good doco's about it . It wasn't to big eather as a big one would have hit the ground .I think some time in the 90"s there was a simular explosion in a remote part of I think Africa that was court by a satellite about the same size but it exploded higher up and so no effect on the ground .When I say small I mean 5 meters .

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No Lynn no UFO from what I know it was a meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere .There are some good doco's about it . It wasn't to big eather as a big one would have hit the ground .I think some time in the 90"s there was a simular explosion in a remote part of I think Africa that was court by a satellite about the same size but it exploded higher up and so no effect on the ground .When I say small I mean 5 meters .

UFO, folklore, many have thought. No epicentre was found?

This is widely regarded as a meteorite exploding in the air before hitting the ground. UFO activists have long wanted to view it as a UFO crash, and it has become as famous as the myths surrounding Area 51, and the Rendell Forest. They persist because too many people WANT to believe them.

Myths, right!

Tunguska Mystery Solved By Three Tiny Stones?

In 1908, a huge explosion enveloped the skies over the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Russia. It is a well-known atmospheric airburst that flattened 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi) of forest and launched a thousand conspiracy theories, spawning the inspiration behind an alien-packed X-Files episode. Was it an asteroid? A comet? Or some kind of bizarre alien weapon designed to kill large numbers of squirrels?

This is widely regarded as a meteorite exploding in the air before hitting the ground.

I think that the consensus among astronomers is that it was a piece of a comet. Comets are mostly made of ices... frozen water, methane etc. When they hit earth's atmosphere, the water and other ices turn into superheated steam causing a steam explosion, and of course flammable methane would then explosively react with the oxygen in the atmosphere. There would be little to no residue and a very small (considering the size of the explosion) or no impact crater.

This fits what happened at Tunguska best, and as a bonus satisfies Occam's Razor. :^)

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This is widely regarded as a meteorite exploding in the air before hitting the ground.

I think that the consensus among astronomers is that it was a piece of a comet. Comets are mostly made of ices... frozen water, methane etc. When they hit earth's atmosphere, the water and other ices turn into superheated steam causing a steam explosion, and of course flammable methane would then explosively react with the oxygen in the atmosphere. There would be little to no residue and a very small (considering the size of the explosion) or no impact crater.

This fits what happened at Tunguska best, and as a bonus satisfies Occam's Razor. :^)

Nice post Mr.Kevvy! Indeed, "when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better."

@Chris, yep, the jury is still out...

Thanks. :^)

Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy blog published a nice piece on this today: Have Tunguska Meteorites Been Found? I Have My Doubts. Definitely worth reading.

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Thanks. :^)

Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy blog published a nice piece on this today: Have Tunguska Meteorites Been Found? I Have My Doubts. Definitely worth reading.

Welcome, thanks for the article. :-) Yes, still have my doubts also. We will have to wait and see. Those rocks just don't look right, way to polished. It's also a good thing the Tunguska Event, was not a Shoemaker-Levy 9, we would not be here if it was.

The Tunguska Explosion presumably caused by a comet, is the greatest space catastrophe humankind has ever witnessed.

The Tunguska Explosion presumably caused by a comet, is the greatest space catastrophe humankind has ever witnessed.

I would say the one that Russia just had last month was the greates humans Have seen,Thanks to all the dashboard cams, and cell phones.

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Old James

The Tunguska Explosion presumably caused by a comet, is the greatest space catastrophe humankind has ever witnessed.

I would say the one that Russia just had last month was the greates humans Have seen,Thanks to all the dashboard cams, and cell phones.

Yes, the meteor over Russia, remember it well. I was up the day/night it happened.
The explosion of Tunguska,was a space catastrophe, sorry if I put humankind event ever witnessed. Someday the event will be solved.