No Black Hole Or Magnetic Monopole: Tunguska Really Was a Meteor

davide-nature writes "The mysterious blast that flattened 2,000 square km of a remote Siberian forest in 1908 has been blamed on the most bizarre causes, such as an exotic elementary particle left over from the Big Bang, a black hole or, of course, aliens, including in the double-episode 'Tunguska' of The X-Files. But a new analysis of tiny rock samples suggests that a more mundane explanation — a meteor exploding in the atmosphere — may be the right one. The blast is estimated to have packed between 3 and 5 megatons, 10 times the energy of the meteor that exploded over Russia earlier this year."

Comments

Well I'm Glad That's Solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can go back to being terrified about terrorists. The black hole thing really had me pissing myself.

Re:Hm, wasn't aware there was any controversy

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't aware there was any controversy about this. I always thought it was believed to be a meteor or comet.

Well, that's clearly because they already brainwashed you. Only those of us who are FREE and can think for ourselves understood the TRUTH behind it. Now it turns out we were wrong, of course, but THE POINT STILL STANDS!

Monopoles were common before 1890s

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

It is not a well known, but the fact was magnetic monopoles were quite common before 1890s. Most people would just buy one pole, two was considered a needless luxury or waste. But the Big Magnet did not like it and wanted to double their sales. Their magnets with both the north and the south pole languished on the shelves, unable to, ahem, attract customers. So the lobbied congress, and as usual they added a completely irrelevant rider to Sherman anti-trust legislation and banned monopoles as well as cartels, trusts and collusion. Pretty soon they stopped making them.