An asteroid that was just discovered by NASA is slated to fly near the Earth at an “unusually high speed” on Oct. 31, 2015, causing some to dub it as the “Halloween asteroid.”
The object, which will make its nearest pass on All Souls’ Day, was first located by scientists just over a week ago, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The object is about 920 and 2,034 feet in diameter, and it was first spotted a University of Hawaii observatory.
“The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit,” the space agency said.
The asteroid, named 2015 TB145, is not expected to collide with Earth, scientists said. They added, “The flyby presents a truly outstanding scientific opportunity to study the physical properties of this object.”
One won’t be able to spot the asteroid with the naked eye, but it will be visible via telescope.
“This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027,” added NASA.
The last approach closer than this by an object of comparable size was July 2006, according to NASA.
The asteroid will be zooming by at a very high velocity, or around 78,000 mph, when it reaches 300,000 miles from Earth.
Friends Read Free