For a college class, I have to write a research paper on the Tunguska Event. I have to debunk the myth about a UFO causing the explosion.
Here's my project proposal that I sent my professor:
"Was the ‘Tunguska Event’ carried out by the USSR government, or was it the doing of extraterrestrial species?" I chose this topic because it sounds like the Tunguska Event was due to a nuclear weapon. I am unclear as to whether or not the Russian Empire intentionally dropped the weapon for the purpose of testing, or if it was an unintentional accident. The pseudoscientific opinion is that extraterrestrials are responsible for the explosion. I intend to figure out the most likely cause.
I am fascinated by the secrecy and harshness of the Russian government. My hypothesis is that the Russian empire was trying to create a nuclear weapon with early technology. The explosion took place in 1908. It would make sense that they wanted to create a nuclear weapon before the United States or any of the other world powers. The explosion occurred in a Siberian forest, a perfect place to test a weapon because there were no people living in that area. For research, I intend to study eye witness accounts of the explosion, newspaper articles from that time period, and nonfiction sources from people living in the Russian Empire in 1908. I will also try to gather information on early nuclear weapons, Russian defense mechanisms of World War I, and secret operations of the Russian Empire’s government.
So, historians of reddit, here are my questions for you :
What do you think is the actual cause of the Tunguska Event?
Could this be the testing of an early nuclear weapon?
Does any of this relate to World War I? It can't be a coincidence that the Great War started 6 years later.
A nuclear weapon can be ruled out because the knowledge of what atoms were made of and how they were constructed was completely unknown at the time.
The arguments against aliens causing it are a bit too complex to go into here, but it is extremely unlikely. Occam's Razor can take care of that one.
There is no reason I have ever heard of to doubt that the Tunguska event was anything but a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere, as meteors often do when they're within a certain size range.
Any speculation is based upon the fact that the event itself was not witnessed by human eyes nor recorded by satellites or aircraft. So it's odd that the choice was between two ridiculous and highly unlikely explanations when there is an accepted explanation that is not under question by the scientific community.
Was the ‘Tunguska Event’ carried out by the USSR government
Nine years before the Bolshevik Revolution, fourteen years before the establishment of the USSR?
Bolide exploding in atmosphere.
No. This predates modern atomic theory, much less nuclear fission, much less the techniques necessary to actually make nuclear weapons.
No. I don't know why you don't think it's a coincidence that half-a-decade after a bolide strike over an uninhabited area there is a war. They are totally unrelated.
If you actually want to salvage a serious history paper out of this, look into how the Tunguska Event was talked about in newspapers and scientific journals from the time period. That could be interesting. But you are barking up a very silly tree with the weapon hypothesis.