Early in the morning on June 30, 1908, a burning mass of something hit central Siberia so hard that 300 miles away, men and horses were knocked off their feet to the ground.
Indeed the shock was felt in England, 3,500 miles away. For years, scientists tried to find out what it was that hit the earth that day. What destroyed 80 million trees in a circle fifty miles wide? What could have been so hot that it burned to a crisp everything near where it hit the earth? If they couldn’t find out what it was, they knew what it wasn’t.
What hit the earth was no meteorite. Some thought it might have been a comet, which has a center of frozen gases mixed with other substances. Upon hitting the earth, the comet would have melted, with its water disappearing into the ground.
Whatever it was, the mystery has remained unsolved to this day.
