Tunguska forest. Tunguska meteorite crash site

On June 30, 1908, at about 7 o'clock in the morning, a large fireball flew through the Earth's atmosphere from southeast to northwest and exploded in the Siberian taiga, in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River.

The place where the Tunguska meteorite fell on the map of Russia

A dazzling bright ball was visible in Central Siberia within a radius of 600 kilometers, and heard within a radius of 1000 kilometers. The power of the explosion was later estimated at 10-50 megatons, which corresponds to the energy of two thousand atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, or the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb. The air wave was so strong that it knocked down a forest within a radius of 40 kilometers. The total area of ​​the fallen forest was about 2,200 square kilometers. And due to the flow of hot gases as a result of the explosion, a fire broke out, which completed the devastation of the surrounding area and turned it into a taiga cemetery for many years.

Lesoval in the area of ​​the Tunguska meteorite fall

The air wave generated by the unprecedented explosion circled the globe twice. It was recorded in seismographic laboratories in Copenhagen, Zagreb, Washington, Potsdam, London, Jakarta and other cities.

A few minutes after the explosion, a magnetic storm began. It lasted about four hours.

Eyewitness accounts

"... suddenly in the north the sky split into two, and a fire appeared in it, wide and high above the forest, which engulfed the entire northern part of the sky. At that moment I felt so hot, as if my shirt was on fire. I wanted to tear and throw off my shirt, but the sky slammed shut, and there was a strong blow. I was thrown from the porch three fathoms. After the blow, there was such a knock, as if stones were falling from the sky or being fired from cannons, the earth shook, and when I was lying on the ground, I pressed my head, fearing that the stones did not break their heads. At that moment, when the sky opened, a hot wind rushed from the north, as if from a cannon, which left traces in the form of paths on the ground. Then it turned out that many of the glasses in the windows were broken, and the iron bar for the door lock was broken ".
Semyon Semenov, resident of the Vanavara trading post, 70 km from the epicenter of the explosion ("Knowledge is power", 2003, No. 60)

“On the morning of June 17, at the beginning of the 9th hour, we observed some unusual natural phenomenon. In the village of N.-Karelinsky (200 versts from Kirensk to the north), peasants saw in the northwest, quite high above the horizon, some extremely strong (it was impossible to look at) body glowing with a white, bluish light, moving for 10 minutes from top to bottom. The body seemed to be in the form of a “pipe,” that is, cylindrical. The sky was cloudless, only not high above the horizon, in the same direction , in which a luminous body was observed, a small dark cloud was noticeable. It was hot, dry. Approaching the ground (forest), the shiny body seemed to blur, and in its place a huge cloud of black smoke formed and an extremely strong knock (not thunder) was heard, "as if from large falling stones or cannon fire. All the buildings were shaking. At the same time, a flame of an indefinite shape began to burst out of the cloud. All the residents of the village ran into the streets in panic, the women were crying, everyone thought that the end of the world was coming."
S. Kulesh, newspaper "Siberia", July 29 (15), 1908

Over a vast area from the Yenisei to the Atlantic coast of Europe, unusual light phenomena of an unprecedented scale unfolded, which went down in history under the name “bright nights of the summer of 1908.” The clouds, which formed at an altitude of about 80 km, intensely reflected the sun's rays, thereby creating the effect of bright nights even where they had never been observed before. Throughout this vast territory, on the evening of June 30, night practically did not fall: the entire sky was glowing, so that it was possible to read a newspaper at midnight without artificial lighting. This phenomenon continued until July 4th. It is interesting that similar atmospheric anomalies began in 1908 long before the Tunguska explosion: unusual glows, flashes of light and colored lightning were observed over North America and the Atlantic, over Europe and Russia 3 months before the Tunguska explosion.

Later, at the epicenter of the explosion, increased growth of trees began, which indicates genetic mutations. Such anomalies are never observed at meteorite impact sites, but are very similar to those caused by hard ionizing radiation or strong electromagnetic fields.

A section of larch from the area where the Tunguska body fell, cut down in 1958.
The 1908 annual layer appears dark. Accelerated growth is clearly visible
larch after 1908, when the tree suffered radiant burn.

Scientific research into this phenomenon began only in the 20s of the last century. The place where the celestial body fell was explored by 4 expeditions organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences and headed by Leonid Alekseevich Kulik (1927) and Kirill Pavlovich Florensky (after the Great Patriotic War). The only thing that was found were small silicate and magnetite balls, which, according to scientists, are the product of the destruction of the Tunguska alien. The researchers did not find a characteristic meteor crater, although later, over many years of searching for fragments of the Tunguska meteorite, members of various expeditions discovered a total of 12 wide conical holes in the disaster area. No one knows to what depth they go, since no one has even tried to study them. It was discovered that around the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, the forest was fanned out from the center, and in the center some of the trees remained standing, but without branches and without bark. “It was like a forest of telephone poles.”

Subsequent expeditions noticed that the area of ​​fallen forest was shaped like a butterfly. Computer modeling of the shape of this area, taking into account all the circumstances of the fall, showed that the explosion did not occur when the body collided with the earth’s surface, but even before that, in the air, at an altitude of 5–10 km, and the weight of the space alien was estimated at 5 million tons.

Scheme of forest felling around the epicenter of the Tunguska explosion
along the “butterfly” with the axis of symmetry AB taken
for the main direction of the trajectory of the Tunguska meteorite.

More than 100 years have passed since then, but the mystery of the Tunguska phenomenon still remains unsolved.

There are many hypotheses about the nature of the Tunguska meteorite - about 100! None of them provides an explanation for all the phenomena that were observed during the Tunguska phenomenon. Some believe that it was a giant meteorite, others are inclined to believe that it was an asteroid; There are hypotheses about the volcanic origin of the Tunguska phenomenon (the epicenter of the Tunguska explosion surprisingly coincides exactly with the center of the ancient volcano). The hypothesis that the Tunguska meteorite is an extraterrestrial interplanetary ship that crashed in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere is also very popular. This hypothesis was put forward in 1945 by science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev. However, the largest number of researchers recognize the most plausible hypothesis that the Tunguska alien was the nucleus or fragment of the nucleus of a comet (the main suspect is Comet Encke), which burst into the Earth’s atmosphere, heated up from friction with the air and exploded before reaching the earth’s surface - that’s why no crater. The trees were toppled by the shock wave from the air explosion, and the ice fragments that fell to the ground simply melted.

Hypotheses about the nature of the Tunguska alien continue to be put forward to this day. So, in 2009, NASA experts suggested that it was indeed a giant meteorite, but not stone, but ice. This hypothesis explains the absence of traces of the meteorite on Earth and the appearance of noctilucent clouds, which were observed a day after the Tunguska meteorite fell to Earth. According to this hypothesis, they appeared as a result of the passage of a meteorite through the dense layers of the atmosphere: this began the release of water molecules and microparticles of ice, which led to the formation of noctilucent clouds in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

It should be noted that the Americans were not the first to hypothesize about the icy nature of the Tunguska meteorite: Soviet physicists made such an assumption a quarter of a century ago. However, it became possible to test the plausibility of this hypothesis only with the advent of specialized equipment, such as the AIM satellite - it conducted research on noctilucent clouds in 2007.

This is what the Podkamennaya Tunguska area looks like today
Photo: Vitaly Bezrukikh / RIA Novosti

The Tunguska disaster is one of the most well-studied, but at the same time the most mysterious phenomena of the twentieth century. Dozens of expeditions, hundreds of scientific articles, thousands of researchers were only able to increase knowledge about it, but were never able to clearly answer a simple question: what was it?

At about seven o'clock in the morning local time on June 30, 1908, a large fireball flashed over the territory of the Yenisei River basin. The flight ended with a powerful explosion at an altitude of about 7 kilometers, which was recorded by observatories around the world. According to modern estimates, the power of the explosion reached 50 megatons, which is comparable to the explosion of the most powerful one. Glass in houses flew out several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion.

If the Tunguska meteorite had exploded while passing over Europe, the explosion would have been capable of completely destroying a city like St. Petersburg. If this incident had happened half a century later, such an explosion could well have been mistaken for a nuclear attack and caused the outbreak of World War III. But, fortunately, the fall occurred in a sparsely populated region of Siberia.

In 2013, interest in the “Tunguska phenomenon” grew again after a meteorite fell in the Chebarkul area.

Research into the incident in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area has continued for more than a century, but to this day there is no clear answer to the question: what exactly happened on June 30?

As of 1970, scientists have recorded 77 different theories about the nature of the “Tunguska phenomenon”. Theories are divided into technogenic, geophysical, meteorite, antimatter, religious and synthetic.

Over the past 40 years, there have been no fewer versions, and even the list of hypotheses considered to be the main ones numbers more than two dozen.

We have selected eight of the most interesting versions of the incident on Podkamennaya Tunguska.

1. Meteorite

According to the classical hypothesis, on June 30, 1908, a large stone or iron meteorite, or a whole swarm of meteorites, fell to Earth.

The most obvious version has one weak point - numerous expeditions to the place where the supposed meteorite fell did not allow the discovery of debris and remains of the meteorite substance. Moreover, the forest at the site of the cosmic catastrophe was felled over a large area, but trees remained standing exactly in the place where the meteorite crater should have been located.

Supporters of the meteorite version say - yes, there is no solid meteorite, it completely collapsed, and numerous small fragments fell to the Earth. The problem is that it has not been possible to find these fragments in any significant quantity to this day.

2. Comet

The “comet” version arose after the meteorite one. Its main difference lies in the nature of the substance that caused the explosion. Comets, unlike meteorites, have a loose structure, an integral part of which is ice. As a result, the comet's substance began to rapidly deteriorate as it entered the Earth's atmosphere, and the explosion completely completed what had begun. That is why, say supporters of the version, it is not possible to detect traces of the substance on Earth - they simply were not there.

Comet and meteorite theories exist in various forms, sometimes intertwined with each other. However, no one has yet been able to convincingly prove that they are right.

3. Alien ship

It is logical that the author of the version about the artificial nature of the “Tunguska phenomenon” belongs to the science fiction writer. In 1946, in the magazine “Around the World”, the Soviet writer Alexander Kazantsev published the story “Explosion”, in which he expressed the version that an alien spaceship crashed in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area. According to Kazantsev, the ship was equipped with a nuclear engine, which exploded. Comparing the explosion of the “Tunguska Phenomenon” with the explosions of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the writer noted that the standing forest at the epicenter is very similar to the residential buildings that survived the epicenter of the explosion in Hiroshima. Kazantsev also noted the similarity of the seismograms of these events.

Kazantsev’s version received a lively response and found a lot of supporters who developed and transformed it.

Scientists have always been extremely skeptical about the “alien” explanation of the incident, but in fact, in this case, the main problem is the same - there is no material evidence.

Already in the 1980s, Alexander Kazantsev adjusted his version. In his opinion, aliens in distress took the ship away from Earth, and it exploded in space, and the “Tunguska meteorite” was the landing of their orbital module.

Fallen forest in the area where the Tunguska meteorite fell. Photo: RIA Novosti

4. Nikola Tesla's experiment

Outstanding American Serbian-born physicist Nikola Tesla at the beginning of the 20th century he was considered the “master of electricity.” Among his many works were experiments related to the technology of wireless transmission of electricity over long distances.

According to this hypothesis, on June 30, 1908, Tesla fired an “energy supershot” from his laboratory into the Alaska region in order to practically test the capabilities of his equipment. However, the imperfection of technology led to the fact that the energy directed by Tesla went much further and caused enormous destruction in the Podkamennaya Tunguska region.

Having learned about the consequences of the tests, Tesla chose not to voice his involvement in the incident. The scale of the destruction forced Tesla to stop such large-scale experiments.

The weak point of this theory is that there is no evidence that Nikola Tesla conducted the experiment on June 30, 1908. Moreover, the laboratory from which the “supershot” was allegedly fired no longer belonged to Tesla by that moment.

5. Antimatter Impact

In 1948, the American scientist Lincoln La Paz put forward the idea that the “Tunguska phenomenon” is explained by the collision of matter with antimatter from space. As is known, during annihilation, the mutual destruction of matter and antimatter occurs with the release of a large amount of energy. The theory is confirmed by the presence of radioactive isotopes in wood material from the explosion site.

Soviet physicist Boris Konstantinov in the 1960s he stated even more clearly - a comet consisting of antimatter had invaded the Earth’s atmosphere. That is why it is simply impossible to find its wreckage.

The lack of knowledge about the nature and properties of antimatter allows us to consider such a version acceptable, but most scientists are skeptical about it.

6. Ball lightning

Back in 1908, the first researchers of the “Tunguska phenomenon” suggested that the cause of the explosion was a huge ball lightning.

To this day, the nature of such a rare natural phenomenon as ball lightning has not been fully studied. Perhaps this is why the “ball lightning” version of events gained popularity among scientists in the 1980s.

According to this version, a giant ball lightning exploded at the scene of the disaster, which arose in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of powerful energy pumping by ordinary lightning or sharp fluctuations in the atmospheric electric field.

7. Cloud of cosmic dust

As early as 1908, French astronomer Felix de Roy suggested that on June 30 the Earth collided with a cloud of cosmic dust. This version was supported in 1932 by the famous Academician Vladimir Vernadsky, adding that the movement of cosmic dust through the atmosphere caused a powerful development of noctilucent clouds from June 30 to July 2, 1908. Later, in 1961, Tomsk biophysicist and enthusiast of studying the “Tunguska phenomenon” Gennady Plekhanov proposed a more detailed scheme, according to which the Earth crossed an interstellar cloud of cosmic dust, one of the large conglomerates of which was what later became known as the “Tunguska meteorite”.

The same Gennady Plekhanov put forward a humorous version, which, with some stretch, can be considered “version 7 bis”. Having been bitten by midges during one of the expeditions to the Podkamennaya Tunguska region, he proposed the idea that on June 30, 1908, a cloud of mosquitoes with a volume of at least 5 cubic kilometers gathered in this place, as a result of which a volumetric thermal explosion occurred, resulting in the fall of the forest.

8. Spaceship launch

Another original version of the “Tunguska phenomenon” is associated with science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It was expressed in a humorous way in their story “Monday Begins on Saturday.” According to it, on June 30, 1908, a spaceship was launched in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area. Its landing happened a little later, that is, in July, since it was a ship not just of aliens, but of contrarian aliens, that is, people from the Universe, where time moves in the direction opposite to ours.

But if the Strugatsky brothers’ version of the contrarian aliens was expressed in a humorous manner, then in the early 1990s the famous ufologist, leader of the Kosmopoisk association Vadim Chernobrov, proposed it as an absolutely serious explanation of the “Tunguska phenomenon”.

While researchers are unable to find convincing and definitive confirmation of any of the versions of the “Tunguska phenomenon”, each of them, despite understandable skepticism, has the right to exist.

Even the one expressed by one of the Chelyabinsk pensioners in relation to another, Chebarkul meteorite:

Yes, these are some kind of drug addicts!

Podkamennaya Tunguska is a river in Russia, which is the right tributary of the Yenisei. It flows in the Irkutsk region and Krasnoyarsk region, where the Tunguska meteorite fell. This event did not receive due attention at the time. However, later they began to study it closely. And they found nothing.

On the right bank of the river is the village of Podkamennaya Tunguska. After an unusual incident, this area became known throughout the world. The event still worries researchers. And not only in Russia. The phenomenon of the Tunguska meteorite excites the minds of foreign scientists.

The most famous phenomenon of the 20th century

In what year and where did the Tunguska meteorite fall? The fall occurred on June 30, 1908. But the old style is June 17th. In the morning at 7:17 a.m. the sky over Siberia lit up with a flash. An object with a fiery tail was seen flying towards Earth.

The explosion that rang out in the Podkamennaya Tunguska basin was deafening. It was 2 thousand times greater than the power of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima.

For reference, in 1945, 2 atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They did not reach the ground, exploding in the atmosphere, but the force of the explosion killed many people. In place of flourishing cities, a desert formed. Today 2 cities are completely rebuilt.

Consequences of the disaster

An explosion of unknown origin destroyed 2000 km 2 of taiga, killing all living things that lived in this section of the forest. The shock wave shook all of Eurasia and circled the globe twice.

Barometers at Cambridge and Petersfield stations recorded a jump in atmospheric pressure. The entire territory from Siberia to the borders of Western Europe admired the white nights. The phenomenon lasted from June 30 to July 2.

Scientists from Berlin and Hamburg were attracted by the noctilucent clouds in the sky in those early days. They were a collection of small particles of ice that were thrown there by a volcanic eruption. However, no eruption was recorded.

But the incident did not attract the attention it deserved. They somehow quickly forgot about him, and then a revolution followed, a war. They returned to the study of the Tunguska meteorite only decades later.

And they found nothing except the consequences of the explosion in the area where the Tunguska meteorite fell. No fragments of a celestial body, nor any other traces of a space guest.

Eyewitness accounts

Fortunately, we still managed to interview the residents of Podkamennaya Tunguska. A few days before the explosion, people observed unusual flashes in the sky.

The explosion itself shook all of Siberia. Local residents saw animals thrown into the air by its force. The houses shook. And a bright flash appeared in the sky. The rumble was heard for another 20 minutes after the fall of the unknown body. By the way, many argue that in fact there was more than one blow. The old Tungus Chuchancha spoke about this. At first, 4 powerful blows followed with equal frequency, and the 5th sounded somewhere in the distance. Residents of the village where the Tunguska meteorite fell felt the full force of the explosion.

At this time, all seismographic stations in Russia, Europe and America recorded a strange shaking of the earth's crust.

People claim that after the explosion there was a strange, frightening silence. There were no birds or other usual forest sounds to be heard. The sky dimmed, and the leaves on the trees first turned yellow, then red. By nightfall they had completely turned black. In the direction of Podkamennaya Tunguska there was a solid silver wall for 8 hours.

It is difficult to say what exactly people saw in the sky - everyone has their own version. Someone talks about a celestial body (each of the narrators talks about a different form), someone about a fire that engulfed the entire sky. “My shirt seemed to be on fire,” said an eyewitness to the events.

God of Thunder

Today, trees are growing again at the site of the meteorite fall. Their increased growth immediately after the disaster indicates genetic mutations. They are never found at meteorite impact sites, which refutes the logical version. Perhaps a strong electromagnetic field formed where the Tunguska meteorite fell.

The giants hit by the blast wave still lie in neat rows, indicating the direction of the explosion. Burnt trees with their roots torn out are reminders of a strange disaster.

The expedition, which arrived at the scene of the explosion in the summer of 2017, examined the fallen trees with a specialist. Local residents, representatives of the peoples of the lower Amur (Evenks, Oroks) believed that they had met the thunder god Agda - the devourer of people. It is noteworthy that the place where the Tunguska meteorite fell actually resembles a giant bird or butterfly in shape.

Where did the Tunguska meteorite actually fall?

The heart of the disaster in the taiga resembles a crater. However, it is not. The cosmic body (most researchers believe that this was it) probably broke into small pieces when it collided with the atmosphere. They could have been scattered in different parts of the taiga. Therefore, no traces of a cosmic body were found at the epicenter of the explosion.

Lake Cheko is located just 8 km from the area where the meteorite fell. Its depth reaches 50 meters and has a cone-shaped shape. Italian geologists suggested that the lake was formed as a result of a meteorite impact.

However, in 2016, their Russian colleagues took samples of lake sediments and submitted them for examination. It turned out that the lake is at least 280 years old. Perhaps even more.

One of the correspondents wrote that one of his neighbors observed a flying star that fell into the water. Will meteorite particles never be found?

The comet burned up before falling

One of the most popular and plausible versions is a comet that burned up in the atmosphere. A body consisting of dirt, ice and snow could simply not reach the Earth. During the fall, it heated up to several thousand degrees and scattered into small pieces at an altitude of 5-7 km above the ground. Therefore, its remains were not found.

However, in the soil where the Tunguska meteorite fell, traces of cometary dirt and water were preserved. They are preserved in sphagnum mosses, which form peat. The layer formed in 1908 contains a high content of cosmic dust.

Black and white?

The theory put forward by Andrei Tyunyaev has already been published in the magazine. It is based on the fact of the existence of black and white holes.

The black hole absorbs microparticles. No one will ever know what happens to them after falling into her mouth. A black hole transforms matter into space. A white hole is capable of forming this matter from space. Both of them perform the function of substance circulation. That is, they perform opposite tasks. Tyunyaev is sure that all celestial bodies are formed precisely thanks to the white hole.

Perhaps the Tunguska meteorite really was the result of a white hole. But where did it come from in Siberia? There are 2 theories: either it was formed in outer space, near the Earth, or it emerged from the depths of our planet. And the explosion could have provoked contact of hydrogen, which is released during the operation of the white hole, with oxygen. During an explosion, only water is formed, of which there is a lot in the area of ​​the incident.

The white hole is a phenomenon that is still little studied and even lacks a sufficient number of theories. Scientists know how its black sister is formed. Perhaps they work together and complement each other. Perhaps these are two sides of one object, which is connected by a wormhole.

Damn cemetery

Strange phenomena in the form of silence and blackened leaves may indicate a distortion of time, physicists say. The fact is that not far from the place where the Tunguska meteorite fell (the facts confirm this information) there is an anomalous zone. It is called the Devil's Cemetery. This place gained terrible fame back in the mid-thirties.

The shepherds lost several cows while moving their herd to the Kova River. Puzzled, they and the dogs began to search for them. And soon they came to a desert area completely devoid of vegetation. There were torn cows and dead birds lying there. The dogs ran away with their tails between their legs, and the men managed to pull the cows out with hooks. But their meat turned out to be inedible. The dogs that ran out into the clearing also soon died from unknown diseases.

This area has been explored by many expeditions. Four went missing in the taiga, the rest died shortly after visiting the Devil's Cemetery.

Local residents claim that at night they see strange lights in those places and hear heartbreaking screams. Foresters are sure that they see ghosts in the forest.

Sensational assumption

Science fiction writer Kazantsev in 1908 voiced the version that an alien ship fell to Earth and lost control. Therefore, the explosion occurred in the middle of the taiga, and not in a city or village - the ship was deliberately sent to a deserted area in order to save human lives.

Kazantsev based his version on the assumption that the explosion was not nuclear, but airborne. Surprisingly, this theory was confirmed by scientists in 1958 - the explosion was indeed airborne. Medical examinations were carried out. And the local residents did not find any signs of radiation sickness. Perhaps, experts believe, a substance unknown to science fell to Earth along with the meteorite. It kills all living things and distorts the course of time.

Secrets of the Tunguska meteorite and interesting facts about it

To date, none of the hypotheses (and there are more than a hundred of them) can explain all the features that accompanied the explosion.

Some interesting facts about the Tunguska meteorite:

1. If the disaster had occurred 4 hours later, but in the same place where the Tunguska meteorite fell, the city of Vyborg would have been destroyed. And St. Petersburg was significantly damaged.
2. 708 eyewitnesses of the event indicated different directions of movement of the cosmic body. Most likely, two, or maybe three objects collided at once.
3. Glass shook, objects fell, dishes broke. Women ran out into the street in horror and cried. They believed that the end of the world had come.
4. There is a version that the disaster was a consequence of the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. God was angry with St. Petersburg, so the direction of the shock wave pointed to this city.
5. Thunderous sounds were heard both during the flight of the car and before and after its landing. And its light was so bright that it surpassed the sun.
6. The power of the explosion is estimated by experts at 40-50 megatons. This is thousands of times more powerful than the atomic bomb that America dropped on Hiroshima.

Finally

The place where the Tunguska meteorite fell (which area of ​​the epicenter of events is indicated above - this is the Krasnoyarsk Territory) is still of interest to researchers. Perhaps this phenomenon is one of the most mysterious events of the last century. Whether it will one day be solved is unknown.

The fall of the Tunguska meteorite is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. There are more than a hundred options for its origin, but none of them was recognized as correct or definitive. Some versions are fantastic, since it is still impossible to answer even one question with accuracy.

Time and place of fall

3 days before the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, unusual phenomena occurred in the atmosphere over the territory of Western Siberia and the European part of the Russian Empire: bright twilight, noctilucent clouds and a solar halo (luminous circle) were observed.

Around 7 a.m. on June 30, 1908, a celestial body appeared in central Siberia in the form of a fireball, moving in a northerly direction. This flight was observed by many residents of nearby villages. At 7 am 14 minutes an explosion occurred near Podkamennaya Tunguska over the Southern Swamp. The fall of the meteorite was accompanied by sounds similar to thunder. The flight ended with an explosion that occurred over the deserted taiga at an altitude of 5-10 km. According to scientists' calculations, the Tunguska meteorite had a diameter of 30 m and weighed approximately 5 million tons.

All observatories in the world recorded the shock wave. Because of it, a forest was felled within a radius of 40 km. The affected area was 2 thousand square meters. km. A powerful flash from the explosion led to a forest fire. Houses located within a radius of over 180 km from the scene of the incident had their windows broken.

Over a vast territory that stretched from the Yenisei to the Atlantic coast of Europe, an unusual phenomenon arose, called the “bright nights of the summer of 1908.” Clouds located at an altitude of about 80 km reflected the rays of the sun, thereby creating “white nights” where they had never been observed before. Eyewitnesses claim that at midnight it was possible to read without additional lighting. This lasted for several days.

The intensity of the explosion from the meteorite (about 50 megatons) is comparable to the power of the hydrogen bomb (more than 58 megatons), which was carried out in 1961.

Scientists believe that the explosion of the fireball was not a point explosion, so researchers indicate different coordinates of the epicenter of the incident.

Consequences

The magnetic storm continued for 5 hours afterwards. Even barometers in England registered a sharp jump in atmospheric pressure. Scientists from Germany recorded noctilucent clouds, consisting of many ice particles that appear as a result of a volcanic eruption, but nothing similar was noted at that time. Throughout Siberia to the borders of Western Europe, “white nights” were observed from June 30 to July 2.

At that moment, for some unknown reason, no one paid attention to these incidents. Only several decades later did scientists begin to become interested in these phenomena.

Some time after the explosion, increased tree growth began, indicating a radiation release. A similar phenomenon was observed in Chernobyl and Hiroshima. However, studies of minerals did not reveal nuclear matter in them.

The shock wave was so strong that it circled the globe twice.

After the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, the rich vegetation of the taiga could not recover for a long time.

Expeditions

In 1921, scientists L.A. Kulikov and P.L. Dravert organized the first expedition to verify reports of a meteorite fall. Witnesses were interviewed, which made it possible to more accurately determine the location of the incident, where the second group went in 1927. During the investigation, it was discovered that forest had been felled over a large area. At the same time, at the supposed epicenter of the explosion, the trees remained standing, and there were no traces of the crater.

Despite these results, Leonid Kulik continued to believe that it was a meteorite that exploded, so during the expedition he tried to find its fragments and organized aerial photography of the crash site. In total, during the period from 1927 to 1939, Kulikom prepared from 4 to 6 campaigns.

Third expedition of L. Kulik

A new expedition was scheduled for 1941, but it did not take place due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Kulik died in captivity, but the study of the issue was continued by his student and participant in the campaigns E. L. Krinov. He shared the results in the book “Tunguska Meteorite”. Kulik believed that the fallen celestial body was a body of cosmic origin and tried to find a crater, but discovered thermokarst pits.

Over a long period of searching, various expeditions found 12 wide cone-shaped holes in this territory. How deep they were, no one knows. In recent years, scientists have wondered about the origin of the pits and the strange fallen trees. After the explosion they should lie parallel, but in this case everything does not correspond to science.

Photo by L. Kulikov from the 1927 expedition

In 2006, the president of the Tunguska Space Phenomenon Foundation, Yuri Labvin, reported that quartz cobblestones with strange signs were found at the site of the disaster. Researchers claim that these marks were applied in some technogenic way (presumably using plasma). The quartz cobblestones themselves were studied in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk. As a result, it was found that quartz contains substances that do not exist on our planet.

Labvin put forward a hypothesis according to which the cobblestones are fragments of an information container sent by other civilizations.

Is there a connection with Nikola Tesla

At the beginning of the 21st century, a theory arose according to which the Tunguska meteorite is associated with the experiments of Nikola Tesla. It is assumed that electrical experiments that were carried out during the fall of the fireball generated a pulse of enormous power. It was also reported that a map of Siberia was seen on the scientist’s desktop.

In the spring of 1908, Nikola Tesla, in a letter to the editor of the New York Times, said that his wireless electrical installations could make any region of the Earth uninhabitable.

Nikola Tesla in his laboratory

This theory is also confirmed by the fact that several months before the incident, Tesla announced his intention to illuminate the road for the expedition of traveler R. Piri to the North Pole. On the night of June 30, silvery clouds that seemed to pulsate were seen in Canada and Northern Europe. This phenomenon coincides with the testimony of people who witnessed Tesla's experiments in his laboratory.

All these circumstances allow supporters of this theory to claim that the Tunguska meteorite does not exist, and the unusual phenomenon is associated with the experiments of the great scientist.

There is no reliable data about the fall, but there are quite a lot of interesting facts, which raise even more questions:

• No fragments or fragments of the meteorite were found. Scientists assume that they evaporated during the explosion or scattered over several thousand kilometers and it is not possible to find them.
• Afterwards a fire started, but it did not become catastrophic, although it was a hot summer.
• There were no casualties or major destruction.
• Witness testimony from the 1950s was analyzed and it turned out that opinions about the trajectory of the meteorite were diametrically opposed.
• In the first mentions, the meteorite was called Filimonovsky, since it fell in the area of ​​the Filimonov crossing.
• The first scientist to examine the disaster zone was geologist V. Obruchev, who was in Siberia at that time. He discovered fallen timber and drew a map of the area.
• If the Tunguska meteorite was indeed an asteroid that entered the earth's atmosphere, then it should have an impressive size.
• There is no impact crater at the crash site, which is unusual. Scientists assumed that it consisted entirely of water ice, and therefore left no traces.
• A few decades later, a similar mysterious event occurred in Brazil. According to the official version, the fall occurred in a hard-to-reach place, so no research was carried out.
• Some physicists in the 70s suggested that in fact the Tunguska meteorite was a wandering black hole that collided with the Earth.
• After the explosion, which affected the magnetic field, radio communications did not work in many regions for 5 hours.
• After the fall of the meteorite, an aurora that was inexplicable for these areas was observed over Athens and Madrid.

The paradox is that despite the large number of scientific options (about 100) and international research conducted, the secret of the Tunguska meteorite has not been revealed. All reliable facts include only the date of the incident and its consequences.

On June 30, 1908, at about 7 a.m. local time, a unique natural event occurred over the territory of Eastern Siberia in the basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River (Evenkiy District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory).
For several seconds, a dazzling bright fireball was observed in the sky, moving from southeast to northwest. The flight of this unusual celestial body was accompanied by a sound reminiscent of thunder. Along the path of the fireball, which was visible in Eastern Siberia within a radius of up to 800 kilometers, there was a powerful dust trail that persisted for several hours.

After the light phenomena, a super-powerful explosion was heard over the deserted taiga at an altitude of 7-10 kilometers. The energy of the explosion ranged from 10 to 40 megatons of TNT, which is comparable to the energy of two thousand simultaneously detonated nuclear bombs, like the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The disaster was witnessed by residents of the small trading post of Vanavara (now the village of Vanavara) and those few Evenki nomads who were hunting near the epicenter of the explosion.

In a matter of seconds, a forest within a radius of about 40 kilometers was torn down by a blast wave, animals were destroyed, and people were injured. At the same time, under the influence of light radiation, the taiga flared up tens of kilometers around. A complete fall of trees occurred over an area of ​​more than 2,000 square kilometers.
In many villages, shaking of the soil and buildings was felt, window glass was breaking, and household utensils were falling from shelves. Many people, as well as pets, were knocked down by the air wave.
The explosive air wave that circled the globe was recorded by many meteorological observatories around the world.

In the first 24 hours after the disaster, in almost the entire northern hemisphere - from Bordeaux to Tashkent, from the shores of the Atlantic to Krasnoyarsk - there was twilight of unusual brightness and color, night glow of the sky, bright silvery clouds, daytime optical effects - halos and crowns around the sun. The glow from the sky was so strong that many residents could not sleep. The clouds, which formed at an altitude of about 80 kilometers, intensely reflected the sun's rays, thereby creating the effect of bright nights even where they had not been observed before. In a number of towns one could freely read the small print newspaper at night, and in Greenwich a photograph of the seaport was received at midnight. This phenomenon continued for several more nights.
The disaster caused fluctuations in the magnetic field recorded in Irkutsk and the German city of Kiel. The magnetic storm resembled in its parameters the disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field observed after high-altitude nuclear explosions.

In 1927, the pioneer researcher of the Tunguska disaster, Leonid Kulik, suggested that a large iron meteorite fell in Central Siberia. In the same year, he examined the scene of the event. A radial forest fall was discovered around the epicenter within a radius of 15-30 kilometers. The forest turned out to be felled like a fan from the center, and in the center some of the trees remained standing, but without branches. The meteorite was never found.
The comet hypothesis was first put forward by the English meteorologist Francis Whipple in 1934; it was subsequently thoroughly developed by the Soviet astrophysicist, academician Vasily Fesenkov.
In 1928-1930, the USSR Academy of Sciences conducted two more expeditions under the leadership of Kulik, and in 1938-1939, aerial photography of the central part of the area of ​​​​the fallen forest was carried out.
Since 1958, the study of the epicenter area was resumed, and the Committee on Meteorites of the USSR Academy of Sciences conducted three expeditions under the leadership of the Soviet scientist Kirill Florensky. At the same time, research was begun by amateur enthusiasts united in the so-called complex amateur expedition (CEA).
Scientists are faced with the main mystery of the Tunguska meteorite - there was clearly a powerful explosion above the taiga, which felled a forest over a huge area, but what caused it left no traces.

The Tunguska disaster is one of the most mysterious phenomena of the twentieth century.

There are more than a hundred versions. At the same time, perhaps no meteorite fell. In addition to the version of a meteorite fall, there were hypotheses that the Tunguska explosion was associated with a giant ball lightning, a black hole entering the Earth, an explosion of natural gas from a tectonic crack, a collision of the Earth with a mass of antimatter, a laser signal from an alien civilization, or a failed experiment by physicist Nikola Tesla. One of the most exotic hypotheses is the crash of an alien spaceship.
According to many scientists, the Tunguska body was still a comet that completely evaporated at high altitude.

In 2013, Ukrainian and American geologists of grains found by Soviet scientists near the crash site of the Tunguska meteorite came to the conclusion that they belonged to a meteorite from the class of carbonaceous chondrites, and not a comet.

Meanwhile, Phil Bland, an employee of the Australian Curtin University, presented two arguments questioning the connection of the samples with the Tunguska explosion. According to the scientist, they have a suspiciously low concentration of iridium, which is not typical for meteorites, and the peat where the samples were found is not dated to 1908, meaning the stones found could have fallen to Earth earlier or later than the famous explosion.

On October 9, 1995, in the southeast of Evenkia near the village of Vanavara, by decree of the Russian government, the Tungussky State Nature Reserve was established.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources