[Rockhounds] Meteor that blasted millions of trees in Siberia only 'grazed' Earth, new research says

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A new explanation for a massive blast over a remote Siberian forest in 1908
is even stranger than the mysterious incident itself.

Known as the Tunguska event, the blast flattened more than 80 million trees
in seconds, over an area spanning nearly 800 square miles (2,000 square
kilometers) — but left no crater. A meteor that exploded before hitting the
ground was thought by many to be the culprit. However, *a comet or asteroid*
<https://www.livescience.com/difference-between-asteroids-comets-and-meteors.html>
would
likely have left behind rocky fragments after blowing up, and no "smoking
gun" remnants of a cosmic visitor have ever been found.

Now, a team of researchers has proposed a solution to this long-standing
puzzle: A large iron meteor hurtled toward *Earth*
<https://www.livescience.com/earth.html> and came just close enough to
generate a tremendous shock wave. But the meteor then curved away from our
planet without breaking up, its mass and momentum carrying it onward in its
journey through space.

https://www.space.com/tunguska-meteor-impact-explained.html