'At 7.00am on 30th June 1908 near the lower Tunguska River, Siberia, a large explosion occurred. The explosion was so massive that it caused damage 400 miles away, and was heard even further. Even the heat that came out from the explosion was felt hundreds of miles away.
For several nights all over northern Europe, the sky glowed enough to light the street of London. At first it was assumed that a massive meteorite had collided with the earth.
Given the remoteness of the area it was not until 1927 that an expedition was mounted to investigate the crash area. The expedition could not locate any bits of meteorite which puzzled them due the size that the meteorite would have to have been to create such a large explosion.
Another puzzle for the expedition was the way the tress were felled in an outward motion and that in the centre an area of trees were still standing, although all their bark and branches have been destroyed.
After the Second World War and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, photos of the cities were compared with aerial photos of the Tunguska blast, and they were stunning similar.
As a result of this various scientists speculated that a nuclear explosion had taken place over the area, hence explaining the tree formation, and because no nation possessed nuclear device the logical conclusion was that it was from an exploding alien nuclear powered craft.
Other theories started to be banded around ranging from pinpoint black holes, and antimatter particles.
Many of the witnesses to the original crash spoke of seeing and oval-shaped mass moving across the sky, as well as seeing the object change course, and of having a very low speed.
Most people today believe that what hit Tunguska was simply a meteorite, but the alien craft theory still has a lot of credibility. As with most of these cases that occurred long ago, we shall probably never know for sure.'
Nope, it was not an alien craft, antimatter, black hole, nuclear explosion or any other exotic event. (Occam's razor)
Recently we have improved the tools that model meteorite impacts in the atmosphere. When a meteor hits the atmosphere it can be traveling more than 15 kilometers per second. The shock of the atmosphere itself can cause some stony meteors, depending on a specific diameter and velocity, to explode prior to impact (this particular one is thought to have been somewhere around 30 to 50 meters in diameter and traveling approximately 15 Km/sec). Evidence that backs this up is that bits of rock have been found imbedded in the trees that match the composition of the usual stony meteorite.
Oh, come on. Everyone knows the Ganglkplyztz race-- the only race with exploration rights in this part of the galaxy-- uses only non-explosive dilithium crystals. How would one of their scout vessels cause an explosion of *that* size?
Ugh... I hate when people just don't think these things through!