Huge Asteroid to Pass Earth on Halloween

Here's one scare apt for Halloween - an asteroid measuring 300 and 600 meters across will have a near miss with Earth on October 31. It was spotted a mere 3 weeks before it is set to fly by our planet and miss it by "a whisker."

"Well, if whiskers were 499,000km long, at any rate," The Telegraph's Helena Horton noted.

The Halloween asteroid, which is traveling "on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit," is said to be the closest flyby since 2006.

"This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027," NASA relayed, adding that it is classified as "hazardous" as it is within the 4,600,000 mile threshold to Earth.

NASA also reassured the public that even though the asteroid's orbit is "erratic," it will definitely not hit our planet.

"The asteroid, dubbed 2015 TB145, was discovered on October 10 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS telescope," Gizmodo reported. "The object measures about 280 to 620 meters (920 to 2,034 feet) in diameter, so it's pretty big-about the size of a skyscraper. Or two."

"If the size is correct, the new found asteroid is 28 times bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteor that penetrated the atmosphere over Russia in February, 2013," EarthSky estimated.

"It's moving at a velocity of 35 km/s (78,830 mph or 12,600 km/h), which NASA describes as 'unusually high,'" Gizmodo affirmed. "After the Halloween flyby, no object will come as close again until August 2027 when NEO 1999 AN10 will approach within 1.0 lunar distance."

The said asteroid won't be visible to the naked eye, as its brightness only approximates magnitude 10, but can be observed via telescopes.

"It'll be seen best in the Northern Hemisphere, but the moon will be a relatively bright 80% waning gibbous at the time," the site added.

The Halloween asteroid's recent discovery is said to be "a reminder of how important it is to support and improve the asteroid detection programs, such as NASA's Near-Earth Object program, according to EarthSky.

"It's also important to continue scientific studies about what might be done if a dangerous asteroid is detected on a possible collision course with Earth," it went on. "Various space agencies are already working towards earlier asteroid detections, but more funding is always required."

NASA said that the upcoming flyby will be a good opportunity for scientific agencies to study the asteroid's physical properties.

Previous asteroid flybys had been accompanied by doomsday warnings. This one will probably also come with its share of apocalyptic associations. 

Let us know what you think!

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