The Tunguska Mystery (Astronomers' Universe) [Hardcover]

Vladimir Rubtsov (Author), Edward Ashpole (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387765735 | ISBN-13: 978-0387765730 | Publication Date: August 31, 2009 | Edition: 1

     The summer of 1908 witnessed the arrival of an unknown space body and an explosion over the Tunguska forest in Central Siberia that could have flattened any major city on Earth. Most people think that the Tunguska event was explained long ago by scientists who study meteorites - that it was either a stony meteorite or the icy core of a comet. But these assumptions are not so tenable as their supporters would like to think. The Tunguska event remains an enigma in its second century of existence as perplexing as it has been throughout the past century. And what Russian scientists have discovered in recent decades is both astounding and reliable, and will cause some eyebrows to be raised.
     The Tunguska Mystery is the first truly comprehensive and popular exposition of this century-long enigma written specially for western readers. It is objective and pays attention to both conventional and unconventional theories of the Tunguska space body's origin. Also, this is the only book written in the English language on Tunguska studies in the former Soviet Union and the new independent states that is entirely based on firsthand accounts of serious researchers directly engaged in these studies. The book's language is simple, The Tunguska Mystery is meant not only for specialists, but first of all for any reader who is interested in the fascinating mysteries of the world we live in.
      As a reader noted on Amazon.com, the book is "very well written. The illustrations and photographs help the reader to understand the great importance of this study. I found this book to be a fine addition to anyone's library. Who does not enjoy a good mystery... a true scientific mystery which may help us someday to protect our Earth from future Tunguska events. I wish to add that it was very enjoyable from beginning to end, with a touch of humor and many interesting facts!"

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is arguably the best book you will find on this subject - thorough, balanced, detailed, in-depth and very well-written on top of everything else. If you're interested in the Tunguska mystery, start here. My hat is off to Rubtsov for his scholarship and lucid writing style." Michael Schmicker, "Journal of Scientific Exploration"

From the Author

What is Tunguska? This is a region in Central Siberia, where there are several rivers with this word in their names (all tributaries of the Yenisey). But also this is a short designation of one of the most enigmatic events that happened in the 20th century: the flight and explosion of a cosmic body of unknown nature.

The high-altitude explosion that occurred in this region on the morning of June 30, 1908, devastated almost 940 square miles of the taiga, twice as large as the territory of New York City, flattening some 30 million trees. If the Tunguska space body had fallen some five hours later then St-Petersburg would have found itself in the seat of its explosion and the city would have been in ruins. Minutes after the explosion a magnetic storm began, like the geomagnetic disturbances following nuclear explosions in the atmosphere. This was detected by the Magnetographic and Meteorological Observatory in Irkutsk. The storm lasted five hours.

In the former USSR almost every reading person knew the meaning of the word "Tunguska". Not so in the West. Although any Internet search engine will immediately react to the keyword "Tunguska" offering about three million web pages, I regularly meet with western people who have no notion of the Tunguska event. But even those who have heard something about it know little about the subject. Just that a space body fell in Siberia and leveled many trees. They believe that "science has proved" that it was either a stony asteroid or the icy core of a comet. In fact, the picture is not so simple...

The primary problem with the conventional interpretation of the Tunguska event is that there is no trace of either asteroidal or cometary material at the site of the explosion. Usually, authors of Tunguska hypotheses pay careful attention to this fact and try to build a mechanism to explain it, with varying degrees of success. But there is also a serious problem that is generally overlooked: the need to take into consideration all empirical data and to reconstruct the Tunguska event before building any models of it. Such a reconstruction is essential since the consequences of this event are many and varied. Unfortunately, many theorists who try to solve this enigma are aware of only two facts: in 1908 something flew over Siberia and this "something" exploded. Actually there is far more to this story. I personally researched this subject for 40 years and this book presents the wealth of information collected in Russia during the past 100 years.

Those wishing to find out what did in fact happen in Central Siberia in 1908 have to consider the whole body of relevant data; only then will a realistic model of the phenomenon be seen through the apparent chaos of this body of information. And, as the famous detective Sherlock Holmes used to say, "the more bizarre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it".

During the last century, the public has often read that "The Great Enigma of the Tunguska Meteorite Has Been Solved!" But such statements were premature. Only now do we have the opportunity to solve the problem by harnessing the discovered facts and building a correct picture of the Tunguska event. No more guessing and flawed hypotheses - just objectivity, empiricism and taking into account all reliable data...

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387765735
• ISBN-13: 978-0387765730
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Astronomy & Space Science > Comets, Meteors & Asteroids

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Treatment of a Complex - and Still Unsolved - Mystery, October 26, 2009

By 

Ian Dubin (The Great White North) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Tunguska Mystery (Astronomers' Universe) (Hardcover)

On June 30, 1908, on a sunny Siberian morning at 00 H 14 M GMT (7:14 am local time) something exploded in the skies over the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia. The blast blew out windows 200 km away and was heard more than 800 km from the site. The seismic wave was recorded as far away as Germany and the atmospheric pressure wave was measured on barographs in London. The nearest eyewitnesses (30 km to the south-southeast) had their shelter blown away, their local area set afire, and reported a second sun in the sky. Approximately 2100 sq km of forest was radially flattened and then burned. At the epicentre, trees remained standing but were stripped of branches - burnt telegraph poles. The blast occurred at some 6 to 8 km altitude. There is no impact crater.

I became fascinated by the Tunguska Event nearly half a century ago, reading about it in 'Boy's Life' or some such and I am not alone, as it has become an enduring Global mystery, familiar to hundreds of millions, and a staple of popular western culture seeking the undefinable. A true X-File. This morning, (26 October 2009) a Google search on 'Tunguska event' turned up over 59,000 hits. Not surprising for an occurrence that has been the focus of intense curiosity, speculation and (as Dr. Rubtsov has detailed) an extraordinary investigative effort by Soviet and Russian scientists over the last hundred years.

Dr. Rubtsov's book is an encyclopedic compilation and a well written precis of the scientific records of that marvellous research. From the 1921 Kulik expedition searching for evidence of a meteorite impact (which was not found) to the Centenary conferences held in 2008 to discuss the event (there were more than half a dozen of them), Dr. Rubtsov has catalogued the incredible effort put into the problem over the last century, both by independent researchers and also by the official Soviet (later Russian) Scientific Academies. Much of the content and references have not been widely documented in the West prior to this publication and that is not surprising, since most of the citations refer to previous documentation only available in Russian. It is an excellent reference book and a worthy addition to the libraries of all anomalists.

More than that, it is clear from Dr. Rubtsov's writing that he holds a huge 'affection' (for lack of a better word), not only for the still unsolved mystery of the Tunguska Event (which he has been personally involved in for nearly four decades), but also for the vast army of scientific researchers (it was a revelation to me just how vast this army was) who have spent large proportions of their professional lives in trying to make sense of this extraordinary happening. He writes with humour and a subtle wit. The subtlety is not misplaced, since during the Soviet era, subtlety was necessary in addressing the problem. The wrong inference published by an open-minded scientist could have earned him a one way ticket to Siberia and a lifetime spent contemplating the mystery from some nearby Gulag. In this respect, Dr. Rubtsov's book should be of interest not only to anomalists, but also to historians and others interested in the evolution of the Soviet scientific effort under the paradigm of an (arguably) paranoid totalitarian government.

Dr. Rubtsov is meticulous in detailing the evidence that has emerged of the mystery. Unusual celestial phenomena recorded as remotely as Western Europe beginning three days or earlier before the event. Many hundreds of eyewitness reports from up to 1000 km away of a flying object (or objects) as it (or they) approached Tunguska, records of the hemispheric magnetic storm associated with the explosion, analysis of the felled trees, including blast patterns and 'flash burns', remnant traces of 'hard' or ionizing radiation in the area, the presence of rare earth elements (and other interesting elements) in the zone affected by the explosion, biological mutations and last but not least, barographic records of the explosion that indicate the possibility that it may have had a nuclear origin. The calculated magnitude of the blast itself was 50 megatons, approximately equivalent to the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated (the so-called Tsar Bomb fired in 1961 in Novaya Zemlya). This was not your garden variety meteorite!

The book is extremely well referenced and I suspect that Dr. Rubtsov's editor, Edward Ashpole, has had a large influence in setting it in it's final form for English publication. I would have liked a more comprehensive index dealing more specifically with subjects as well as with people - perhaps that will come in later printings?

It is apparent that in addition to being a good writer and scientist, above all Dr. Rubtsov is an empiricist. He repeatedly makes the point that there is no use in proposing explanations that do not fit all of the empirical data. From Kulik's 1921 meteorite, through comet cores, cosmic snowflakes, mini-black holes, an antimatter asteroid and even the 'fanciful' explanation proposed by the Russian Science Fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev in 1945 (a distressed alien starship), Dr. Rubtsov has looked at them all. None of them totally fit the data, although some of them have definitely provided insight and guidance for future research.

Does Dr. Rubtsov have his own theory? Indeed he does, but I will not reveal it in this review, partly because I am still trying to get my head around it. Does it fit the data? Well, yes. That should be enough although it probably won't be. There is clearly more work to be done.

Heartily recommended for all of us who do not totally trust or accept the current world view promulgated in the popular media. Heartily recommended for all those who like to look at the evidence (the two - ie the current world view and the evidence - are not, in my opinion, necessarily contiguous). I think that Dr. Rubtsov would probably agree.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend this book!, September 11, 2009

By 

Margaret H. Kichline "Peggy" (Bethlehem, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tunguska Mystery (Astronomers' Universe) (Hardcover)

Even though I just recently received this book, after going through all the pages briefly, I find it to be very well written which shows the author's true dedication for detailed information, research and inquiries with colleagues. Along with the various hypothesis for this true life mystery, the illustrations and photographs help the reader to understand the great importance of this study. I found this book to be a fine addition to anyone's library. Who does not enjoy a good mystery...a true scientific mystery which may help us someday to protect our Earth from future Tunguska events?!

I wish to add, after reading this book, that it was very enjoyable from beginning to end. Within each chapter, the data and research was most detailed and understandable, along with a touch of humor and many interesting scientific facts!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tunguska Mystery, December 29, 2010

By 

Frank J. Spitz (Darien, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Tunguska Mystery (Astronomers' Universe) (Hardcover)

This book is truly a one of a kind. Nowhere has such an in depth review and analysis been published under one cover prior to this. What makes this book unique is the plethora of publications that were unavailable to the west and written in Russian.

In reading this book, one relizes the complexity of this event. It was not just a extraterrestrial object that "exploded" over Siberia. There were a chain of events leading up to and including the final above ground explosion. The author goes thru great lengths to give a play by play account of what transpired in the minds of various researchers in analyzing the evidence and eliminating various causes.

The authors writting style draws you into the story to such a degree that one is compelled to keep reading, never thinking to put the book down until one is finished.

This is a tour de force of investigative reporting and scientific insite. Anyone even remotely aware or interested in cosmic impacts, meteoritics or just a great scientific mystery will definetly not be dissappointed. Cited are numerous field reports and scientific studies for those interested and able to read them in their original Russian.