The Tunguska explosion was strong enough to register as earthquake tremors in Russia, Germany, Java and Washington DC. The blast, estimated at 1023 ergs, dwarfed the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all of the nuclear tests in the early 1950s put together. The explosion caused widespread damage.
Tunguska Explosion and Strange Luminescence
The first reports of an eerie glow in the sky came from Europe. Sightings continued for weeks after the explosion.
People in the UK and Belgium saw a pink phosphorescent light in the night sky brilliant enough so that people could read in its glow. The skies over Germany were bright green. The skies over. Moscow were so bright that outdoor photographs were taken without using a flash camera.
The explosion resulted in an enormous pillar of fire that was witnessed for hundreds of miles. This was followed by a series of thunder claps which could be heard for over 500 miles. Tall conifers were ignited and burned for days.
First Tunguska Expedition
The first investigation in 1927 provided significant evidence. Many trees, void of limbs and leaves were near the center of the blast stood upright. Farther away, trees were blown down and charred, forming circles with their bases pointing toward the blast’s epicenter.
There were no findings suggesting an object hitting the ground, supporting the theory that the explosion happened in mid-air.
Mainstream science assumed that the Tunguska explosion was caused by a meteorite, implying that it exploded in mid-air. Numerous eyewitnesses saw a cylindrical object, shining with brilliant bluish-white light move vertically downward for about ten minutes before the explosion.
Tunguska Explosion, Alien Aircraft?
Some believe the object was an extraterrestrial craft that exploded over Tunguska. Nearby Lake Baikal has an eerie reputation, including legends of strange races of humans.
The object’s trajectory wasn’t that of a meteorite or other natural object. The speculation is that lake might be a base for extraterrestrials. The object could have been an alien aircraft that had problems, resulting in a mid-air explosion.
Another theory is that an aircraft was destroyed intentionally by other aliens in a battle. The object’s trajectory could have been an attempt to evade an enemy in a mid-air cat fight.
Tunguska and the Chuchunaa
Mongolians have seen a giant wearing ragged grey clothing and called it Chuchunaa. The last known encounter with it was in 1941.
Colonel V. S. Karapetyan and his troops were asked to investigate sightings of a huge creature in the Buinaksk Mountains.
The soldiers saw a creature and pursued it; they cornered the creature in a cave and killed it. Some believe the creature was an alien marooned from its aircraft.
Ball Lightning
One other possible cause of the Tunguska event is ball lightning. However, ball lightning is a phenomenon not consensually understood in the scientific world.
A March 20, 2008 report by ABC Science of Australia, interviewed a leading ball lightning scientist, Emeritus Professor Bob Crompton, who says that currently there is no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon.
Ball lightning is a spherical, luminous phenomenon that occurs most often during thunderstorms. It is considered a form of lightning. It can move horizontally, hover or in a zigzag motion, even witnessed to move through walls.
Ball lightning has been recorded as occurring during a thunderstorm, just after a lightning bolt strikes, which causes a high electrical field. Some scientists have been able to recreate ball lighting in laboratories.
One scientist, Nikola Tesla, even mastered the production of lightning before the Tunguska event occurred. He is known as the “Master of Lightning”.
Tunguska Explosion and Further Expeditions
Soviet geochemist Kirill Florensky led the expeditions. They found dust containing magnetic iron oxide and tiny drops of heat-fused rock. Florensky checked the radiation levels at the site.
The only radioactivity appeared to be from fallout that drifted into the area from Soviet H-bomb tests.
Scientists examined Florensky’s findings and data from further investigations began to theorize that a fragment of Comet Encke collided with earth smashing into Siberia.
Later, some scientists postulated that the blast was caused by a black hole or a chunk of anti-matter.
One piece of evidence seems to support the spaceship theory. There is a strange irregular shape at the center of the circle of damaged terrain.
Scientists and geologists who analyzed it say it looks as if the blast was caused by something exploding inside a cylinder. Comets are not cylindrical.
The mystery to this day remains unsolved.
