Return to Tunguska

The mysterious event in 1908 has been mysterious for a hundred years. There was some apparent impact, burned trees, and other strangeness. But now, a new lead:

In late June of 1908, a fireball exploded above the remote Russian forests of Tunguska, Siberia, flattening more than 800 square miles of trees. Researchers think a meteor was responsible for the devastation, but neither its fragments nor any impact craters have been discovered.

Astronomers have been left to guess whether the object was an asteroid or a comet, and figuring out what it was would allow better modeling of potential future calamities.

Italian researchers now think they've found a smoking gun: The 164-foot-deep Lake Cheko, located just 5 miles northwest of the epicenter of destruction.

The Tunguska Event has intrigued me for a long time. I never bought the ideas that it was a UFO crash, or a miniature black hole, or a small bit of antimatter, but none of the less esoteric explanations really seemed to explain everything. I'm looking forward to further reports.