back to article Tunguska object came from Mars say Russian boffins

Russian boffins have floated the idea that the Tunguska object, a meteorite that flattened swathes of Siberia in 1908, may have been a chunk of Mars. The Tunguska event is considered history's largest recorded meteorite impact. Controversy surrounds whether the object was a meteorite or comet, and whether the object hit the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

    Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!

    1. VinceH
      Mushroom

      Re: Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

      No boom today.

      Boom tomorrow.

      There's always a boom tomorrow.

      BOOM!

      1. big_D Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

        Very apt sci-fi reference! Thank you Vince.

  2. LaeMing
    Alien

    Chances of that?

    Million-to-one, I'd say!

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: Chances of that?

      ..and still they come.

    2. Paul Dx
      Happy

      Re: Chances of that?

      Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.

    3. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: Chances of that?

      I guess the aerobraking did not go according to plan...

      Ulla...

  3. Tom 7

    gravelite sandstone (98.5% SiO2)

    One big enough to be a Tunguska candidate Is not likely to survive being fired from a cannon on Mars or being thrown up from a meteorite impact there either. Well not to make it to earth in one piece without some serious shepherd moon of its own.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: whether Martians threw it at us. And why.

    ... perhaps it was just a dramatic skycrane failure?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Volcanic plug

    Considering volcanoes on earth loft some rocks a fair distance how much would it take to send a big rock out of the gravity of Mars?

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Volcanic plug

      The force that would send it straight up at > 11,200 mph.

      1. Thecowking

        Re: Volcanic plug

        5km/s on Mars iirc.

        I suppose it's even a little easier if you did it from the top of Olympus. I don't think Olympus is that dense, I could well be wrong though. One course on "the Solar system" 13 years ago at uni isn't a lot to go on.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Volcanic plug

          More than a few Martian cow farts then, thanks.

  6. itzman
    Holmes

    Alternative theory:

    Mars has been bombarded with so many tunguska meteorites that its covered in the same stuff.

  7. hplasm
    Alien

    It's BUGS!

    That did it- Buenos Aires is next!!

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: It's BUGS!

      Have you been watching those dreadful adaptations of superb pulp-sci-fi novels that have been being broadcast over Christmas? ;-)

      1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

        Re: It's BUGS!

        Why do you think it was dreadful?

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: It's BUGS!

          Actually, they weren't that bad... I just got upset because I read the whole series of books back in the 80s/90s and the films are not a patch on those. But the films do stand up reasonably well in their own right - well, the first one, anyway. Did they make sequels? I seem to recall seeing a second one.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's BUGS!

            Did they make sequels?

            Love the first film (and subsequently read the book it was based on), but the sequels are absolutely dire.

            1. MrDamage Silver badge

              Re: It's BUGS!

              Yes, they made sequels, but they fall into the same category as the sequels for The Matrix, and Highlander.

              Ignore them and your memory of the first movie will remain unsullied.

            2. TRT Silver badge

              Re: It's BUGS!

              What was your opinion of the book and how it was translated to film? I must admit it was many, many years ago that I read Heinlein's works (the ones in our local library anyway).

  8. Graham Marsden
    Alien

    And slowly, and surely drew their plans against us...

    "...What do you mean you mixed up tifanary measurements and qatotery measurements...?"

  9. jjk

    Mars?

    I don't believe it for a moment. Readers of Stanislaw Lem know that it came from Venus.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If it was the Martians, then their aim was off. They missed France by thousands of miles.

  11. Vociferous

    How to spot junk science:

    1) the paper makes spectacular claims about something spectacular.

    2) the paper is an analysis of objects which no-one but the author has seen or think exist.

    3) the paper has not been published.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Martians were trying to silence HG Wells for tipping off humanity

    But they mixed up metric and imperial units....

  13. Renan "C#" Sousa

    Throwing rocks in a lake

    "If proven, the next question must surely be whether Martians threw it at us. And why."

    You know how it's fun to throw rocks at a lake surface to see how far you can make them bounce?

    From a martian's point of view, the closest lakes around are those of water on Earth, and the methane ones in Titan. Earth is only about half as far away as Titan...

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