'The results support our explanation of one of the long-standing problems of astronomy - the Tunguska phenomenon, which has not received reasonable and comprehensive interpretations to date', researchers wrote. Several eyewitness reports describe unusual and prolonged lights in the sky, both before and for days after the impact, quite unlike those to be expected. Scientists have compared the incident to the century-old Tunguska event, a huge explosion allegedly caused by a fragment of a comet or meteor.It looks like it was something like Tunguska a 60-meter diameter cosmic body, which fell into the Tunguska taiga in 1908, said Professor Oleg Malkov, Head of the Star Clusters Physics Department.

It likely flew 3,000km (1,800 miles) through Earth's atmosphere at an eye-watering 11.2km per second (seven miles per second).ДЄn explosion occurred no lower than 11km (seven miles) above Earth's surface, according to the paper. Although the prevailing consensus as to the cause of the Tunguska blast is the explosion of a comet or meteorite in the atmosphere above the area, there are numerous reasons to doubt this. Initially, the Tunguska event was a mystery. The resulting shock wave flattened 80 million trees over 500,000 acres. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising) Forty miles away near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, a 220 million pound asteroid had hurtled into the earthвЂ™s atmosphere at 33,500 miles per hour and detonated in the sky with cataclysmic force above Siberia. Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.Yuri Lavbin says he found unusual quartz crystals at the site of the. Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. A Russian scientist claims that aliens downed the Tunguska meteorite 101 years ago to protect our planet from devastation.On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor.The most surprising is the fact that in some hundred-odd years that have passed since that event, scientists have. Perhaps no visitor from outer space in the history of the mankind created so much noise, both literally and figuratively. Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite has long attracted the attention of researchers from around the world.

Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)

Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun.

Tungusta meteorite