The Solar System is going all out on the Halloween decorations this class once again . On November 11 , just a few days after Halloween , near - Earth asteroid 2015 TB145 willzip past planet Earthat a secure distance . Although the folk at NASA have previously dubbed the asteroid “ The Great Pumpkin ” , many hoi polloi have point out that it also bears a happen upon resemblance to a gargantuan skull ( image below ) .
Scientists at the University of Hawaii first discovered the asteroid on October 10 , 2015 , just a few workweek before it hada close shave with Earth on October 31 . During this particular coming upon , 2015 TB145 was just 1.3 lunar distance away from Earth , although this clip it will zip past us at a great aloofness of around 105 lunar distances .
" The flight of 2015 TB145 is well understood , " Paul Chodas , manager of the Center for Near - Earth Object Studies at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena , California , enounce ina statement in 2015.“At the point of closest approach , it will be no closer than about 300,000 Roman mile – 480,000 kilometers or 1.3 lunar distances . Even though that is comparatively close by celestial standard , it is expected to be fairly faint , so night - sky Earth observers would involve at least a minuscule telescope to view it . "
Spooky one-time 2015 TB145 and its close approach to Earth in 2015 was the national of a study publish in the journalAstronomy & Astrophysicslast year , so researchers have a fairly clear musical theme of what it ’s like . The asteroid is an estimated 700 meter ( 2,300 feet ) in diam . That might sound pretty vainglorious , but it ’s little enough to have no gravitational influence on the Moon or Earth .
As if all of this was n’t Halloweeny enough for you , researchers also suspect that 2015 TB145 might be what ’s known as a “ dead comet ” .
" We found that the object reflects about 6 percent of the light source it receives from the Sun , " Vishnu Reddy , a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson , Arizona , said ina instruction in 2015 . " That is interchangeable to fresh mineral pitch , and while here on Earth we imagine that is somewhat dark , it is brighter than a typical comet which mull only 3 to 5 percent of the light .
" That suggests it could be cometary in origin – but as there is no coma evident , the conclusion is it is a dead comet . "
savour the moment , because the next time the asteroid will make a notably close fly ball - by of Earth will be in August 2027 , when it will pass by at just 1 lunar distance ( 383,000 kilometers or 238,000 miles ) from Earth .
