ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 01 10 16 1 v 2 2 6 Fe b 20 02 Mirror objects in the solar system ?

This talk was given at the Tunguska-2001 international conference but it is not about the Tun-guska event. Instead we tried to give some flavor of mirror matter, which is predicted to exist if parity is an unbroken symmetry of nature, to non-experts. The possible connection of the mirror matter ideas to the Tunguska phenomenon was indicated by Foot and Gninenko some time ago and was elaborated by Foot in the separate talk at this conference. If the mirror world interpretation of the Tunguska like events is indeed correct then the most fascinating (but very speculative) possibility is that some well known celestial bodies with strange properties are in fact made mostly from mirror matter, and so maybe the mirror world was discovered long ago and we just have not suspected this! This conference is devoted to the 1908 Tunguska mysterious event. Human beings like mystery stories very much. Maybe the greatest mystery being our very ability to be so curious. It seems that the strange aspiration for unraveling mysteries and even stranger belief that the truth really exists for every case is hardwired in our brains. This passion for knowledge is powerful enough to compete with other human passions and makes possible the existence of substantial science despite the fact that scientists, just like other human beings, are subject to various human weaknesses not compatible with genuine science like arrogance, vanity and unfairness. It is not easy to find the truth about the event so old and so enigmatic. Thus it is not surprising that numerous hypotheses were suggested for explanation to what happened in the Central Siberia near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in the early morning hours of June 30, 1908 [1]. A new hypothesis is considered in Foot's talk at this conference [2] according to which Tungus tribesmen and Russian fur traders had witnessed an atmospheric explosion of some mirror meteoroid. What is mirror meteoroid? It is a meteoroid made from the mirror matter. And what follows is an attempt to explain to you the meaning of words " mirror matter ". While describing certainly exotic things, we will try to follow the advice " Be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brains fall out. " The main motivation for the mirror-world comes from the symmetry argument: the existence of mirror matter makes the world left-right symmetric. What is left and what is right at the fundamental, …