Suppose that the situation shown in the [first diagram] were reversed so that the nucleus of the atom were negatively charged and the charges of the particles revolving about it were positive, as in the [second diagram]. Matter built up from atoms like those in this diagram would bear somewhat the same relation to ordinary matter that -2 does to +2. Such matter is now known variously as reversed matter, anti-matter, or, as it was first called by V. Rojansky, contraterrene matter. In recent years, scientists at the University of California Radiation Laboratory have produced experimentally all the fundamental particles necessary for the creation of contraterrene matter.
What would happen now if a contraterrene meteorite penetrated into the ordinary matter of the earth? The answer is that just as an electron and a positron mutually annihilate each other when they collide, so the meteorite and an equal mass of the earth-target itself would vanish at the instant of impact. The nearest simple analogy to the actual complex physical situation is represented by the familiar equation -2 + 2 = 0.
Unlike “summing to zero” in simple arithmetic, however, the disappearance of mass, technically called its annihilation, results in a release of energy, as was long ago observed in the case of electron-positron annihilation. Where considerable masses are annihilated, as in an A-bomb explosion, the amount of energy released is tremendous, as is now well known to everyone.
A. Representation of the structure of an atom of ordinary terrestrial matter. The nucleus is positively charged and around it circle negatively charged electrons.
B. Representation of the structure of an atom of contraterrene matter. This is the reverse of the situation in (A). The nucleus here is negatively charged, and around it revolve positively charged electrons, also called positrons.
The effect of such an energy release as would accompany the infall of a contraterrene meteorite would be a natural nuclear explosion of vast power. Such an explosion would account for all the sensational phenomena observed at the time of the Podkamennaya Tunguska incident; and, furthermore, would explain why the Russian investigators have never succeeded in recovering meteorites from this fall. (Further details, [p. 102].)
If the Podkamennaya Tunguska meteorite was contraterrene, then the soil in the impact area must have been made radioactive in the same way that the earth around the “ground zero” of a nuclear explosion is contaminated by radioactivity. After the senior author had repeatedly urged Russian scientists (who are the only ones that have been permitted to visit the site of the Podkamennaya Tunguska fall) to try to detect any long-lasting radioactivities that might still be present in the ground at Podkamennaya Tunguska, such a radioactivity survey was finally carried out in the summer of 1960. According to an official report of the Soviet news agency TASS, the investigators obtained “abnormally high radioactivity readings” which the Russians tentatively considered to be the result of “a natural nuclear explosion” occurring in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area on June 30, 1908.
Science-fiction fans in the U.S.S.R. would like to believe that this “nuclear explosion” resulted from the impact of a Martian spaceship rather than a contraterrene meteorite. Reputable Russian scientists, however, have shown how completely absurd this “fable” of a Martian landing really is.
When and where will the next crater-producing fall occur? Perhaps on the earth, perhaps on the moon, for our nearest neighbor in space has also been the target of meteorites of huge size. The effects of this meteoritic bombardment are shown by the rarest and most striking type of lunar crater: that which exhibits long, bright rays extending outward from the crater itself as the spokes of a wheel radiate from its hub. These so-called ray-craters show to best advantage at or near the time of full moon, when they become one of the most remarkable features visible on our satellite.