According to Yekaterina Shestakova, a town hall official, the expedition consists of five people, three scientists from the Moscow Meteorite Committee and two from Irkutsk. The expedition will go down the Vitim river from Bodaibo to the village of Vitimsky, from where it will proceed on foot to the place where the mysterious celestial body is presumed to have fallen.

It will be recalled that a large bolide entered the atmosphere over the villages of Vitimsky and Mama, in the Mama-Chuya district, on the night of September 24-25, 2002, at an angle of 32 degrees over the horizon and an altitude of 60 kilometers. Then there was a flash at 30 kilometers above the earth's surface which was registered by Americans. According to the U.S. military, the explosion occurred at 58o 13.6, s.l. and 113o 27.6, e.lat.

A team from Yekaterinburg is already working in the area: Twelve scientists and undergraduates are exploring the area where the U.S. satellite registered a second point of the bolides path at an altitude of 30 kilometers, canvassing eyewitnesses and finding numerous traces of the bolide.

By the end of July yet another team of Irkutsk scientists, led by Sergei Yazev, director of the Irkutsk University Astronomic Laboratory, will arrive at the Mama-Chuya district. "All four expeditions will be working independently," Sergei Yazev said.

"We want to study different sections of the bolides flight path." The scientists are especially interested in the virtually unexplored area - from the point where the bolide was registered by the U.S. satellite (30 kilometers over the earths surface) and the place where it presumably fell to the ground. Scientists believe that this area is 30 kilometers to 50 kilometers northeast of that point.

Samples of the snow taken in the area of the meteorites fall were found to contain remnants of meteorite substance - particles of iron, nickel, and chrome that are usually present in meteorites. Furthermore, particles of enstatite, nifeline, and cristobalite were discovered. The last mentioned element is a modification of ordinary quartz that has been subjected to high temperature impact. This rarely happens on earth. In addition, cristobalite and nifeline virtually never occur together. "It seems that a fairly large bolide exploded in the atmosphere," Sergei Yazev says. "It had a 200-ton TNT equivalent. There is nothing to suggest that the body that blew up was man-made - no trace of rocket fuel or increased radiation level or elements of metal structures. Apparently it was a stone or iron-and-stone bolide. Its dimensions have yet to be established."

According to eyewitness accounts, a huge star left a shining curve in the sky, falling somewhere in the cone-shaped hills. The dazzling flash lit up the taiga for a few seconds, as though bathing it in electric light, whereupon came an explosion, so powerful that windows were shattered in houses for dozens of kilometers around. Meteorites are usually given the name of the nearest populated area. It so happens that in 1902, a Bodaibo meteorite was found in the same area. The Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell in 1947. The Chulym bolide dropped on Siberia in February 1986.

The bolide flights were accompanied by a strong induction effect, with household electric bulbs and electronic equipment burning out. Presumably, similar phenomena occurred prior to the fall of the Tunguska meteorite. The moment the Vitim body fell, Georgy Kaurtsev, a Mama airport security officer, ran out into the street: "When the sound of the explosion came, a bulb went on although the switch was in the off position. I put on a jacket and rushed out. There is a meteorological station near the building. It is fenced off with wire mounted on 12 wooden poles. I saw balls of light, 20 to 30 centimeters in diameter, shining atop every one of them. Before long, they went out, but there was no trace left on the poles in the morning."

Maybe the scientists will find the place where the meteorite fell, and study it. Scientists believe it is critical to learn more about the nature of these "space aliens" in expectation of a more serious meteorite strike.

Source: Moscow News