The Tunguska Mystery Author: Vladimir Rubtsov Publisher: Springer ISBN: 978-0-387-76573-0 Price: £26.99 (Hb), 318pp
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On 24 June 1908 an object exploded above the skies of Siberia, flattening some 2,000 square kilometres of forest. But what exactly was this body and how does it relate to other phenomena observed at the same time? For example, its arrival was preceded by strange electromagnetic atmospheric phenomena, some surviving trees showed accelerated growth, radiation levels peaked and there are curious enrichments of rare elements in the soil.

Not all eyewitness accounts are in agreement either - some claimed to see a body 'fly' in a direction from south to north, while others saw it travel from east-south-east to west-north-west; does this mean there were in fact two Tunguska bodies? The most readily accepted conclusion is that of an asteroid or comet exploding a few kilometres above Earth's surface, but other more exotic hypotheses include a micro black hole passing through Earth, or the explosion of a spaceship.

Vladimir Rubtsov has clearly spent an enormous amount of time researching the event, delving into eyewitness accounts and scientific publications alike, and documenting the many excursions made to the epicentre of the blast by the likes of Leonid Kulik in the decades after the explosion, which were made in an attempt to find fragments of the exploding body. Rubtsov's dedication to the subject is reflected in the extensive reference list provided at the end of each chapter, and throughout he presents an unbiased account of all lines of investigation that have occurred to the present day, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

The one hundred year old mystery has yet to give up all of its secrets, however, and there remains one vital piece of the puzzle missing - no fragments of the offending body have ever been recovered.

Emily Baldwin