TUNGUSKA, IN TOOBWORLD

Here's a report from the BBC:

More than 100 years ago, an enigmatic explosion devastated 80 million trees in a Russian forest. Today, researchers say the mystery known as the Tunguska event may be solved.

They say new evidence suggests a comet -- not a meteor as previously thought -- was behind the explosion. And, as the BBC reported, they're pointing to clouds that form thousands of miles away at Earth's polices to explain the theory.

Scientists claim these "noctilucent" clouds -- formations that are similar to what was seen after the Tunguska event -- reach the poles because water vapor appears to be quickly traveling in two dimensions, rather than three. The phenomenon, experts believe, happens when something like a magnetic field constrains the vapor, forcing it to move extremely fast in the remaining two dimensions.

Researchers noted this occurring when the shuttles Discovery and Endeavour launched in 1997 and 2003, respectively. The launches deposit tons of water into the upper atmosphere.

All of this, according to scientists, suggests a water-laden comet that shed its icy coating in that same part of the atmosphere is what flattened 830 square miles of Siberian forests in 1908, reported Examiner.com.

"It's totally new and unexpected physics," Michael Kelley of Cornell University told the BBC. "It's almost like putting together a 100-year-old murder mystery."

For Toobworld, 'The X-Files' provided its own splainin as to what happened at Tunguska in 1908. Here's the TV.com summary for the episode "Tunguska":

A rock sample taken from Mars is intercepted at an airport and infects a security officer with the Black Cancer, while Mulder is given a tip about potentially dangerous paramilitary operations but is doubtful when the informant turns out to be Alex Krycek.

Reluctantly, Mulder accepts Krycek's help and tracks the rock to Russia where he discovers an elaborate test being performed by Russian scientists.

From Wikipedia:
Black oil, or black cancer is the name given on 'The X-Files' to a form of extraterrestrial virus with the ability to control the host. In the series, the black oil (Purity) represents a form of extraterrestrial biological entity and an invasion force. It appears as a liquid with the consistency of crude oil, can move on its own, and is sentient. It can hibernate for thousands of years, usually in petroleum deposits. When it comes into contact with humans, it absorbs itself into the host, sometimes appearing to move directly under the skin and over the eyes of the victim. After pooling in the third ventricle of the brain (Vienen), it takes possession of the person and controls them.

In 2012, alien artifact collector Henry Van Statten made confessed to the Gallifreyan Time Lord about "the medical find his researchers recovered from the mysterious crater that had been created by some sort of seismic blast in 1908 Russia - the cure for the common cold. (Of course, his corporation decided to keep that a secret for fear of ruining the cold & flu medicinal industry.)"
(Previously... on "Inner Toob"....)

For Toobworld Central, another alien race was involved in that scene of devastation over 100 years ago. Back when we were writing about the 'Doctor Who' episode "Dalek", we repeated a theory first posted on the old website "The Tubeworld Dynamic":

(It's also one of the Toobworld hypotheticals that another alien [who was] involved in that blast {and survived} had been a Conehead from Remulac. This Conehead, whether it was a male or a female somehow fit into the human society during the early stages of Soviet Russia and even fathered a half-human hybrid child who grew up to become an arch-villain in Gotham City.... Egghead.)

Egghead would have been born in Russia several years after his Remulac parental unit crashed in Tunguska; probably in 1911, the same birth year as the actor who portrayed him - Vincent Price.

Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!