Remember the 1908 explosion above Tunguska, the one that inexplicably flattened like 800 square miles of trees?
Well, okay, you don’t remember it—but you’ve heard of it, right? It’s fairly mysterious, though the general consensus seems to be that it was caused by some form of meteorite or other exploding in the air. Of course you have your “alternate” theories: it was a black hole, it was antimatter, it was some top-secret government project, etc., etc. And sure, the whole “it was aliens” meme has surfaced a few times (not least of all in the X-files TV show).
And now a group by the name of the Tunguska Space Phenomenon foundation (or Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon foundation) has led an expedition to prove that aliens were the culprits.
Aha.
This was back in August; doubtless, fearless leader Yuri Lavbin and his team at the TSP Foundation are going to bring further evidence of alien involvement to light, cementing their place in history.
Via Persian Journal/WorldNetDaily:
“I am fully confident and I can make an official statement that we were saved by some forces of a superior civilization,” Yuri Lavbin said. “They exploded this enormous meteorite that headed towards us with enormous speed,” he said. Now this great object that caused the meteorite to explode is found at last. We will continue our research, he said.
The whole basing-a-profound-new-theory-on-Star-Trek is truly slick.* You gotta admit, it adds a nice touch—it has real panache, it does.
More on this as it develops.
If it develops.
It probably won’t.
Note:
* Assuming the Wikipedia article is in fact correct on this point. I can’t speak from memory, but there seems to be some corroborative evidence that this was in fact an idea used somewhere in the Star Trek franchise/universe.
(Yahoo! News/Space.com: “Russian Alien Spaceship Claims Raise Eyebrows, Skepticism,” by Robert Roy Britt [August 12, 2004]; WorldNetDaily: “Did aliens save planet in 1908?” [August 12, 2004]; Wikipedia: “Tunguska Event” [last edit September 6, 2004])