100 years after the event, no-one is quite sure what caused the massive Tunguska explosion. Consensus is that the explosion, which was so powerful it smashed windows hundreds of miles away, was caused by a large metor or comet breaking up a few miles above. But there are plenty of other theories out there – some sensible, some utterly bonkers – that have refused to die over the past century.
In an attempt to find out what really happened, film-makers George Carey and Teresa Cherfas packed up their cameras and headed out to Siberia.
On their journey they talk to everyone with a theory, from mystics and reindeer herders, to amateur sleuths and serious scientists. Every one has a theory, ranging from the mundane and probably true (metorite explosion) to the wacky and probably not true (alien spacecraft and anti-matter explosions).
Close Encounters in Siberia, the resulting documentary, will be aired for the first time on UK channel More 4 tonight, and I assume it will make it to more far-flung parts of the world not long after.