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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 in the atmosphere above the territory Western Siberia and the European part of the Russian Empire, unusual phenomena occurred: 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 within a radius of 40 km was felled. The affected area was 2 thousand square meters. km. Powerful Flash 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.

On huge territory, which stretches 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 meteorite explosion (about 50 megatons) is comparable to the power 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 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 last years Scientists 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 light the way for the expedition of the traveler R. Piri to 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, which 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.

The history of our planet is rich in bright and unusual phenomena that have not yet been scientific explanation. The level of knowledge of the surrounding world of modern science is high, but in some cases a person is not able to explain the true nature of events. Ignorance gives rise to mystery, and mystery becomes overgrown with theories and assumptions. The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite is a clear confirmation of this.

Facts and analysis of the phenomenon

The disaster, which is considered one of the most mysterious and unexplained phenomena V modern history, occurred on June 30, 1908. A cosmic body of enormous size flashed in the sky over the remote and deserted regions of the Siberian taiga. The finale of his rapid flight was a powerful air explosion that occurred in the Podkamennaya Tunguska River basin. Despite the fact that the celestial body exploded at an altitude of about 10 km, the consequences of the explosion were colossal. According to modern calculations by scientists, its strength varied in the range of 10-50 megatons of TNT equivalent. For comparison: the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a power of 13-18 kt. Soil vibrations after the disaster in the Siberian taiga were recorded in almost all observatories on the planet from Alaska to Melbourne, and the shock wave circled the globe four times. Electromagnetic disturbances caused by the explosion disabled radio communications for several hours.

In the first minutes after the disaster, unusual atmospheric phenomena were observed in the sky over the entire planet. Residents of Athens and Madrid saw for the first time auroras, and in southern latitudes the nights were light for a week after the fall.

Scientists around the world have put forward hypotheses about what really happened. It was believed that such a large-scale catastrophe, which shook the entire planet, was the result of the fall of a large meteorite. Weight celestial body, which the Earth collided with, could be tens, hundreds of tons.

The Podkamennaya Tunguska River, the approximate place where the meteorite fell, gave its name to the phenomenon. The remoteness of these places from civilization and the low technical level of scientific technology did not allow us to accurately establish the coordinates of the fall of the celestial body and determine the true scale of the disaster without delay.

A little later, when some details of what happened became known, eyewitness accounts and photographs from the crash site appeared, scientists began to more often lean towards the point of view that the Earth collided with an object of an unknown nature. It was thought that it might have been a comet. Modern versions put forward by researchers and enthusiasts are more creative. Some consider the Tunguska meteorite to be a consequence of the fall spaceship of extraterrestrial origin, others talk about the terrestrial origin of the Tunguska phenomenon, caused by the explosion of a powerful nuclear bomb.

However, there is no reasonable and generally accepted conclusion about what happened, despite the fact that today there are all the necessary technical means for a detailed study of the phenomenon. The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite is comparable in its attractiveness and the number of assumptions to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

Main versions of the scientific community

No wonder they say: the first impression is the most correct. In this context, we can say that the first version about the meteorite nature of the disaster that happened in 1908 is the most reliable and plausible.

Today, any schoolchild can find the place where the Tunguska meteorite fell on a map, but 100 years ago it was quite difficult to determine the exact location of the cataclysm that shook the Siberian taiga. A full 13 years passed before scientists paid close attention to the Tunguska disaster. The credit for this goes to the Russian geophysicist Leonid Kulik, who in the early 20s of the 20th century organized the first expeditions to Eastern Siberia in order to shed light on the mysterious events.

The scientist managed to collect a sufficient amount of information about the disaster, stubbornly adhering to the version of cosmic origin explosion of the Tunguska meteorite. The first Soviet expeditions led by Kulik provided a more accurate understanding of what actually happened in the Siberian taiga in the summer of 1908.

The scientist was convinced of the meteorite nature of the object that shook the Earth, so he stubbornly searched for the crater of the Tunguska meteorite. It was Leonid Alekseevich Kulik who was the first to see the crash site and take photographs of the crash site. However, the scientist’s attempts to find fragments or fragments of the Tunguska meteorite were unsuccessful. There was also no crater, which would inevitably remain on the surface of the earth after a collision with a space object of such size. A detailed study of this area and calculations carried out by Kulik gave reason to believe that the destruction of the meteorite occurred at a height and was accompanied by a great explosion.

At the site of the fall or explosion of the object, soil samples and wood fragments were taken and subjected to careful study. In the proposed area, over a huge area (more than 2 thousand hectares), the forest was felled. Moreover, the tree trunks lay in a radial direction, with their tops from the center of the imaginary circle. However, the most curious thing remains the fact that in the center of the circle the trees remained intact and unharmed. This information gave reason to believe that the Earth collided with a comet. At the same time, as a result of the explosion, the comet was destroyed, and most of the fragments of the celestial body evaporated in the atmosphere before reaching the surface. Other researchers have suggested that the Earth probably collided with a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Versions of the origin of the Tunguska phenomenon

According to all parameters and descriptions of eyewitnesses, the version of the meteorite body turned out to be not entirely successful. The fall occurred at an angle of 50 degrees to the Earth's surface, which is not typical for the flight of space objects of natural origin. A large meteorite, flying along such a trajectory and at cosmic speed, in any case should have left behind fragments. Although small, but particles of a space object in the surface layer earth's crust should have stayed.

There are other versions of the origin of the Tunguska phenomenon. The most preferable are the following:

• comet collision;
• air nuclear explosion high power;
• flight and death of an alien spaceship;
• technological disaster.

Each of these hypotheses has a twofold component. One side is oriented and based on existing facts and evidence, the other part of the version is already far-fetched, bordering on fantasy. However, for a number of reasons, each of the proposed versions has the right to exist.

Scientists admit that the Earth could collide with an icy comet. However, the flight of such large celestial bodies never goes unnoticed and is accompanied by bright astronomical phenomena. By that time, the necessary technical capabilities were available to allow us to see in advance the approach of such a large-scale object to the Earth.

Other scientists (mainly nuclear physicists) began to express the idea that in in this case We are talking about a nuclear explosion that rocked the Siberian taiga. According to many parameters and witness descriptions, the series of occurring phenomena largely coincides with the description of processes during a thermonuclear chain reaction.

However, as a result of data obtained from soil and wood samples taken in the area of ​​the alleged explosion, it turned out that the content of radioactive particles did not exceed the established norm. Moreover, by that time, none of the countries in the world had the technical capabilities to carry out such experiments.

Other versions pointing to the artificial origin of the event are interesting. These include the theories of ufologists and fans of tabloid sensations. Supporters of the fall version alien ship assumed that the consequences of the explosion indicate the man-made nature of the disaster. Allegedly, aliens came to us from outer space. However, an explosion of such force should have left behind parts or debris of the spacecraft. So far nothing like this has been found.

No less interesting is the version about Nikola Tesla’s participation in the events that took place. This great physicist actively studied the possibilities of electricity, trying to find a way to harness this energy for the benefit of humanity. Tesla argued that by rising several kilometers up, it was possible to transmit electrical energy over long distances using the earth's atmosphere and the power of lightning.

The scientist carried out his experiments on transmitting electrical energy over long distances precisely during the period when the Tunguska disaster happened. As a result of an error in calculations or other circumstances, an explosion of plasma or ball lightning occurred in the atmosphere. Perhaps the strongest electromagnetic pulse that hit the planet after the explosion and disabled radio devices is the consequence bad experience great scientist.

Future solution

Be that as it may, the existence of the Tunguska phenomenon is an undeniable fact. Most likely, human technical achievements will eventually be able to shed light on the true causes of the disaster that happened more than 100 years ago. Perhaps we are faced with the unprecedented and unknown modern science phenomenon.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

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 about three fathoms. After the blow, there was such a knock as if stones were falling from the sky or guns were being fired, the earth shook, and when I was lying on the ground, I pressed my head, fearing that the stones would fall. They didn’t break their heads. At that moment, when the sky opened, a hot wind rushed from the north, like from a cannon, which left traces in the form of paths on the ground. Then it turned out that many of 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 see) body glowing with a white, bluish light, moving for 10 minutes from top to bottom. The body appeared in the form of a “pipe”, that is, 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 was formed and an extremely strong knock (not thunder) was heard. as if from large falling stones or cannon fire. All the buildings trembled. At the same time, flames of an indefinite shape began to burst out of the cloud. All the inhabitants 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. Interestingly, similar atmospheric anomalies began in 1908, long before the Tunguska explosion: unusual glows, flashes of light and colored lightning were observed above 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 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). There is also a very popular hypothesis that the Tunguska meteorite is an extraterrestrial interplanetary ship that crashed in upper layers Earth's atmosphere. 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 earth's surface- that's why there is 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 XX 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?

The history of planet Earth is rich in various cataclysms on a planetary scale associated with external influence, however, most of these grandiose events took place in prehistoric times. Neither humanity nor modern civilization suffered from collisions with space objects. Our planet has managed to independently digest the consequences of grandiose disasters, leaving people with unusual relief forms and gigantic craters as a reminder of such large-scale events.

Subsequently, for hundreds of thousands of years, space did not disturb the planet, allowing human civilization to develop. Only in the 20th century did nature remind itself again, giving earthlings a unique chance to witness a grandiose event. The Tunguska meteorite, which fell from the sky on June 30, 1908, reminded us of how defenseless we are in front of the Universe. Even after 110 years from that memorable date, scientific world, an army of amateur enthusiasts continues to be interested in the mystery of the Tunguska meteorite. We are still trying to find the answer to the question: what happened over the endless expanses of the Siberian taiga in the early morning of June 30, 1908?

The Tunguska meteorite in the first moments after the disaster

On the morning of June 30, the entire northeastern part of the sky above Eastern Siberia was illuminated with a bright light that eclipsed rising Sun. Moments later, a second sun flashed in the sky and the planet trembled. Ten seconds later, a powerful shock wave swept across a vast area. The apocalyptic spectacle was completed by a monstrous roar.

The force of the explosion turned out to be so powerful that seismic tremors of the earth's crust were able to record scientific observatories located thousands of kilometers from the scene of events - in European countries and overseas. On this day, the blast wave circled the globe twice. Scientists recorded a significant jump in atmospheric pressure, fluctuations were observed magnetic field planets. Humanity encountered such a phenomenon for the first time, feeling the full enormous power of a cosmic cataclysm.

Over a vast area Russian Empire and almost all over Western Europe people witnessed a unique natural phenomenon. For several days in a row, night turned into day. White nights came to those regions of the planet where with similar natural phenomenon never encountered. Glowing clouds continued to hang in the sky in the Southern Hemisphere. Residents of Australia and Durban, South Africa, observed glowing clouds in the sky for another week. Subsequently, throughout the summer of 1908, residents of Eurasia observed bright morning and evening dawns, disrupting the usual flow of daily time.

Locally, the consequences of the disaster turned out to be much larger, but due to the remoteness of the epicenter of the explosion from places of civilization, the details became known much later. The events took place in the remote and remote taiga, in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. This played a decisive role in the fact that humanity escaped from what was happening with a slight fright. The Tunguska meteorite fell in a part of the planet that today remains quite deserted and poorly studied. The space alien that collided with the Earth did not kill a single person. The region's infrastructure was not damaged. The planet reacted quite calmly to the meeting with the heavenly guest.

Details, interesting facts and details

The basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, where the Tunguska meteorite fell, is a huge territory. In terms of area, this region of the East Siberian taiga is comparable to the territory of Germany. The only residential facility close to the crash site of the celestial body was the Vanavara trading post, located 65 km from the epicenter of the explosion. The few Evenki tribes living in this territory felt the full power of the clash. They were the eyewitnesses of what was happening and gave valuable evidence to scientific expeditions. According to the description of local residents, the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite occurred at a height, so the flash of the explosion was clearly visible within a radius of 300-400 km. According to scientists who subsequently studied this phenomenon, the celestial body exploded at an altitude of 6-10 km.

No less interesting were the events preceding the meteorite fall. For 5 minutes, residents of the Krasnoyarsk province observed the flight of a large celestial body. Comparing the data obtained from eyewitnesses, it became clear that the space guest arrived from the eastern direction.

The force of the explosion speaks quite eloquently about the size of the celestial body. The roar was heard within a radius of 1000 km. At the same distance from the epicenter of the disaster, ground vibrations were physically felt.

The first Soviet scientific expedition in 1921, led by Leonid Alekseevich Kulik, gave the scientific community the first accurate understanding of what actually happened on June 30, 1908. Soviet scientists managed to establish the exact coordinates of the site of the collision of our planet with an object of unknown origin: 60°54″07’N. latitude, 101°55″40’E. The version of a meteorite fall disappeared after L.A. Kulik and his companions found themselves at the epicenter of the explosion. Scientists did not see the crater usual for this type of collision. The crater of the Tunguska meteorite was never found. Instead, Soviet researchers saw an unusual landscape. All large vegetation within a radius of 45-50 km was charred and destroyed, which indicated a strong air explosion. This became the subject of subsequent debate about the meteorite origin of the celestial body.

Thanks to Soviet expeditions led by L.A. Kulik to this area, undertaken in 1927-39, the world saw the first photos of the disaster site, truly appreciating its scale. The exact location of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite has appeared on the map. By examining the data obtained by Soviet scientists from the scene, experts were able to estimate the approximate physical parameters celestial body and the power of the explosion. According to supporters of the meteorite theory, on that day the Earth collided with a meteorite weighing up to a million tons, which flew at a tremendous cosmic speed of 30-40 km/s. The energy of the explosion caused by the aftermath of the collision is estimated at 10-40 megatons of TNT equivalent.

Information from the scene of events that occurred in the summer of 1908 is quite contradictory. According to experts, the disaster in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River is not related to the fall of a meteorite. By comparing various factors, scientists have come to the conclusion that we are dealing with a natural phenomenon. In view of this, the scientific community generally considers such a grandiose event in the history of the planet to be the Tunguska phenomenon. In the last decades of the 20th century, a huge number of different hypotheses, versions and theories about the disaster of the summer of 1908 appeared in the world. Nowadays, hypotheses of two options are being actively discussed, about the cosmic nature of the object and what should be said about the terrestrial origin of the phenomenon. These two directions are considered today as the closest to reality, however, unusual and non-standard versions of what happened have the right to exist.

The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite: hypotheses and versions

It was only in 1938 that Soviet scientists managed for the first time to take aerial photographs of the region where the disaster occurred thirty years earlier. The results of this work were amazing and provided ample ground for various kinds of hypotheses and versions about the object under study. To date, the following main versions of the Tunguska phenomenon are being considered:

• collision of a planet with a comet;
• the fall of a group of meteorites that were part of a massive meteor shower;
• falling of a stone meteorite;
• a disaster caused by an object of earthly origin;
• the fall of an interplanetary spaceship of extraterrestrial origin.

Each of the hypotheses has compelling reasons. However, despite the fairly stable positions of supporters of one or another version, there is no real evidence in favor of one of the hypotheses. There are only facts that contradict one another, causing unnecessary speculation and assumptions.

The comet theory is considered the most suitable, since we are dealing with an air explosion. Probably 110 years ago, the Earth suffered a glancing blow from a celestial body of an icy nature. As a result of the strong influence of gravitational forces, the space object collapsed. This is evidenced by the aerial nature of the explosion and the absence of traces of direct contact with solid extraterrestrial material on the earth's surface. The fragments of the Tunguska meteorite allegedly found by Soviet scientists turned out to be pieces of centuries-old ice formed during the Ice Age. The ice found has a watery composition, while in most cases, cometary ice is a solid formation gaseous substances such as methane, ethane and ammonia.

The meteorite theory is also true, however, according to observatory observations, in the summer of 1908 the Earth did not encounter a major meteor shower. There is no need to complain that astronomers overlooked the planet’s encounter with meteorites. Similar astronomical phenomenon, as a rule, leaves a lot of other evidence about itself. In support of the meteorite nature of the phenomenon, Russian scientist A.V. put forward his version. Voznesensky, who at that time was the director of the Irkutsk Observatory.

The hypothesis that a stone meteorite fell to Earth was proposed after a large monolithic stone was found in the area of ​​the disaster, which was considered a fragment of an exploded celestial body. It was subsequently determined that we were dealing with a piece of rock brought to the area by a glacier.

Versions about the earthly nature of what happened look curious. Even the great Tesla argued that the Tunguska phenomenon was a failed experiment in transmitting electrical energy through the air. Other supporters of the version about the earthly nature of the 1908 disaster suggest that a powerful nuclear explosion occurred that day. This is evidenced by descriptions of what is happening, comparable to the effect of damaging factors atomic explosion. In addition, this theory is supported by the fact that intact and unharmed trees were found at the very center of the explosion. Such intensive growth could have been facilitated by the high level of radiation that arose immediately after the explosion. Opponents of this version rely on data from recent radiological studies of the region. In the natural environment, soil, in the skeletons of old trees, the level radioactive isotopes is at an acceptable level that is safe for humans.

The most fantastic of all existing versions explains the Tunguska phenomenon with the death of a spaceship of unearthly origin. This version is supported by those supporters who try to explain the lack of direct evidence about the natural origin of the fallen object. But in the case of the alien ship, such evidence is also absent. Any collapse of a large technical object necessarily leaves behind a mass of small debris and parts. On this moment nothing like this was found.

conclusions

Considering the data obtained from studies of the disaster area, assessing the information obtained as a result of modeling the situation, today it is difficult for scientists to come to a denominator of what actually happened in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River more than a hundred years ago. Despite the fact that the final and most reliable version does not exist, most scientists are inclined to believe that the Earth collided with a large celestial body at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Tunguska meteorite is rightfully considered the greatest scientific mystery of the 20th century. The number of options about its nature exceeded a hundred, but none was recognized as the only correct and final one. Despite a significant number of eyewitnesses and numerous expeditions, the crash site was not discovered, as well as material evidence of the phenomenon; all put forward versions are based on indirect facts and consequences.

How the Tunguska meteorite fell

At the end of June 1908, residents of Europe and Russia witnessed unique atmospheric phenomena: from solar halo to abnormally white nights. On the morning of the 30th over the central strip of Siberia with high speed a luminous body, presumably spherical or cylindrical in shape, flashed by. According to observers, it had a white, yellow or red color, was accompanied by rumbles and sounds of explosions when moving, and left no traces in the atmosphere.

At 7:14 local time, the hypothetical body of the Tunguska meteorite exploded. A powerful blast wave felled trees in the taiga on an area of ​​up to 2.2 thousand hectares. The sounds of the explosion were recorded 800 km from the approximate epicenter, seismological consequences (an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 5 units) were recorded throughout the Eurasian continent.

On the same day, scientists noted the beginning of a 5-hour magnetic storm. Atmospheric phenomena similar to the previous ones were clearly observed for 2 days and occurred periodically for 1 month.

Gathering information about the phenomenon, assessing the facts

Publications about the event appeared on the same day, but serious research began in the 1920s. By the time of the first expedition, 12 years had passed since the year of the fall, which had a negative impact on the collection and analysis of information. This and subsequent pre-war Soviet expeditions were unable to discover where the object fell, despite aerial surveys carried out in 1938. The information obtained allowed us to conclude:

• There were no photographs of the fall or movement of the body.
• The detonation occurred in the air at an altitude of 5 to 15 km, the initial estimate of the power was 40-50 megatons (some scientists estimate 10-15).
• The explosion was not a point explosion; the crankcase was not found at the supposed epicenter.
• The intended landing site is a swampy area of ​​taiga on the Podkamennaya Tunguska River.

Top hypotheses and versions

1. Meteorite origin. The hypothesis supported by most scientists is about the fall of a massive celestial body or a swarm of small objects or their passing tangentially. Real confirmation of the hypothesis: no crater or particles were found.
2. The fall of a comet with an ice core or cosmic dust with a loose structure. The version explains the absence of traces of the Tunguska meteorite, but contradicts the low height of the explosion.
3. Cosmic or artificial origin of the object. The weak point of this theory is the lack of traces of radiation, with the exception of rapidly growing trees.
4. Antimatter detonation. The Tunguska body is a piece of antimatter that turned into radiation in the Earth's atmosphere. As in the case of the comet, the version does not explain the low altitude of the observed object, and there are also no traces of annihilation.
5. Nikola Tesla's failed experiment on transmitting energy over a distance. The new hypothesis, based on the scientist’s notes and statements, has not been confirmed.

The main controversy arises from the analysis of the area of ​​the fallen forest; it had the butterfly shape characteristic of the meteorite fall, but the direction of the lying trees is not explained by any scientific hypothesis. In the early years, the taiga was dead, but subsequently the plants showed abnormally high growth, characteristic of areas exposed to radiation: Hiroshima and Chernobyl. But analysis of the collected minerals did not reveal evidence of ignition of nuclear matter.

In 2006, artifacts were discovered in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area different sizes– quartz cobblestones made of fused plates with an unknown alphabet, presumably deposited by plasma and containing particles inside that can only be of cosmic origin.

The Tunguska meteorite was not always talked about seriously. So, in 1960, a comic biological hypothesis was put forward - a detonation thermal explosion of a cloud of Siberian midges with a volume of 5 km 3. Five years later, the original idea of ​​the Strugatsky brothers appeared - “You need to look not where, but when” about an alien ship with a reverse flow of time. Like many other fantastic versions, it was logically substantiated better than those put forward by scientific researchers, the only objection being anti-science.

The main paradox is that despite the abundance of options (scientific over 100) and international research conducted, the secret was not revealed. All reliable facts about Tunguska meteorite include only the date of the event and its consequences.