Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2019

28 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2019 SMALL BODIES in the region, made it possible to establish that the epicenter of the propagation of the seismic waves was in the north, in the mid- dle of Siberia. Despite these and other per- sonal and instrumental evidence, and despite the strange brightness of the night sky at the beginning of July, no one tried to delve into the nature of the extraordinary event. The fact of having presumably hap- pened in a very inhospitable region, the lim- ited means at the time available to scientists and explorers and, not least, some impor- tant historical events, all contributed to the event itself falling into oblivion for over a decade. It was only in 1921 that a figure who more than others has linked his name to the Tunguska event, Leonid Kulik, came on the scene. Trained as a geologist, Kulik learned about the news about the discovery, later revealed to be fake, of a large mete- orite near a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Believing it could be a fragment of the object that fell in 1908, he managed to organize a small scientific expedition, which evidently ended with nothing. In 1927, after collecting more reliable docu- mentation about the event, Kulik organized a second expedition hopeful to discover the crater of a large meteorite. He knew he had to reach the Tunguska region and was aware that the object had probably ex- ploded in flight at a height of about ten kilometers, but he believed that some large fragments were still recognizable. Kulik pushed deep into the Siberian taiga until he reached an Evenky village called Vanavara, the closest town to the Tunguska event. With the help of local guides and after days of strenuous marching, Kulik reached the edge of a forest whose trees had been bro- ken down and aligned radially with respect O n the left, Leonid Kulik, the first and most obstinate investi- gator of the Tun- guska event. Above, a stamp dedicated to him. Below, a video showing various scenes of the dif- ficult expeditions organized by Kulik, in search of traces of the fall of a large meteorite.