Tunguska event in popular culture
The Tunguska event was an explosion that occurred on 30 June 1908, in the Siberian region of Russia, possibly caused by a meteor air burst. The event has inspired much speculation and appears in various fictional works.
Literature
- In Larry Niven's 1975 novelette The Borderland of Sol, the Tunguska event is proposed to have been caused by the passage through the Earth of a microscopic quantum black hole with the mass of a small asteroid, which then headed back into space and traveled to the outskirts of the Solar System, where it was located 800 years later.[1][2]
- Soviet engineer and science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev in his novel Burning Island mentions the event as the crash site of an alien spaceship, resulting in the discovery of radium-delta, the supposed fuel of the ship. His short story "A Visitor From Outer Space", written in 1946, describes the crash site and eyewitness accounts in detail. In this story a nuclear-powered Martian spaceship, seeking fresh water from Lake Baikal, blows up in mid-air. His story "The Explosion" includes the theory that the Tunguska event was the result of the activities of extraterrestrial beings, including an exploding alien spaceship or an alien weapon fired to "save the Earth from an imminent threat".[3] Many events in Kazantsev's tale, which was intended as pure fantasy, were subsequently confused with the actual occurrences at Tunguska.[4]
- American science fiction author Bill DeSmedt in his debut novel, Singularity, explores the theory that the Tunguska event was caused by a micro black hole.[5]
- Stanislaw Lem's 1951 novel The Astronauts starts with the hypothesis that the event was actually a crash of an extraterrestrial spaceship. That was later proven when an object identified as an extraterrestrial data recorder device was found at the crash site. Based on following research of the object a scientific panel decided the ship came from Venus.[6]
Cartoons and comics
TV and film
- Siberia is an American supernatural drama television series shot in the style of a reality television show where 16 contestants must survive in the Siberian territory of Tunguska, about 100 years after the Tunguska event. Shortly after arrival, the contestants notice strange things and are abandoned by the production of the reality show.
- The television series The Secret KGB UFO Files (Phenomenon: The Lost Archives) in 1998, broadcast on Turner Network Television, referred to the Tunguska event as "the Russian Roswell" and claimed that crashed UFO debris had been recovered from the site.[4]
- In the Doctor Who episode "In the Forest of the Night", the Doctor mentions the Tunguska event as an example of where rapid tree growth helped save humanity.[8]
- Target…Earth? is a 1981 documentary exploring the Tunguska event while discussing several possible causes. It was directed by Joost van Rees, written by Iris van Rees, and stars Victor Buono as Homer the Archivist. Homer, along with his computer assistant INO (I Know), researches the history of the Tunguska event in relation to current events of the day, while watching interviews with various experts. Interviewees include Alexander Kazantsev, Bernard Carr, Carl Sagan, Eugene Shoemaker, Fred Whipple, Frank Drake, George Wald, Harvey Nininger, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Peter Millman, Philip Morrison and Willard Libby.[9]
- In one episode of The X-Files, FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) travels to Russia to investigate the source of a stone fragment, that contained extraterrestrial black oil. While in russia, he theorizes that the stone fragment might originate from a meteorite during the Tunguska event. His partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and assistant director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) are summoned to attend a United States Senatehearing on Mulder's whereabouts. "Tunguska" is a two-part episode, with the plot continuing in the next episode, "Terma".[10]
Songs
- The tenth track on Isao Tomita's 1978 album "The Bermuda Triangle" is titled "The Dazzling Cylinder That Crashed In Tunguska, Siberia (Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6: First Movement)"[11]
- The second single from the 2018 Hopesfall album Arbiter is titled Tunguska. “Yesterday, we actually engaged someone on Twitter about a Ghostbusters reference to the Great Siberian Tunguska of 1908,” vocalist Jay Forrest says. “The song is referencing the real phenomenon.”[12]
References
- May, Andrew (2017). Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. Switzerland: Springer International. p. 33-34. ISBN 978-3319426051. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
- Niven, Larry (1975). Tales of Known Space. Amazon Kindle Editions. p. 216. ASIN B09JHR3DDP.
- "Scientist Claims UFO Collided with Tunguska Meteorite to Save Earth". 26 May 2009.
- Robert Roy Britt (12 August 2004). "Russian Alien Spaceship Claims Raise Eyebrows, Skepticism". Space.com. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
- Shawl, Nisi (2004-11-28). "The nerd gets the secret agent in taut science-fiction thriller". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 2023-05-07. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
- Swirski, Peter; Osadnik, Waclaw M. (2014). Lemography: Stanislaw Lem in the Eyes of the World. Liverpool University Press. pp. 17–42. ISBN 9781781381205.
- "Fs 38: Tung Twister". 8 September 2011.
- "BBC One - Doctor Who, Series 8, in the Forest of the Night - in the Forest of the Night: Fact File".
- Rees, Joost van (1981-01-18), Target... Earth? (Documentary), Gold Key Entertainment, retrieved 2022-10-06
- "inside the x | Tunguska - 4X09 | Transcript". Retrieved 2023-10-25.
- "The Dazzling Cylinder That Crashed In Tunguska, Siberia (Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6: First Movement)". Discogs.
- "Hopesfall break the reunion curse, come back swinging with "Tunguska"". Alternative Press. 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
External links
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