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NASA recently announced that a monster asteroid expected to whizz past Earth on Halloween will make a surprise flyby at a mind-numbing speed of more than 7,800 miles per hour (125,530 km per hour).
The space agency explained that the asteroid has an ‘extremely eccentric’ orbit, but does not represent a threat for life on Earth. The space rock dubbed 2015 TB145 is one of the Near Earth space Objects (NEOs) space agencies and amateurs have been hunting for years.
The asteroid will greet us on October 31 from a 310,000-mile distance. The closest space object that got his close to our planet was an asteroid in July 2006. Although its size is relatively large, 2015 TB145 was first detected on October 10 despite NASA’s and other space agencies best efforts to track asteroids.
“The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit,”
NASA scientists announced this week.
Researchers also said that the asteroid may have a diameter of 0.17 miles or 280 meters to 0.38 miles or 620 meters. The asteroid that allegedly wiped out dinosaurs was 2.5 to 3.7 miles across, new research suggests.
Although the space boulder won’t be visible with the naked eye, sky gazers will be able to take a look at it with a telescope. NASA explained that the asteroid is the closest NEO expected to zip past Earth until August 2027.
At that time, 1999 AN10 would fly past our planet at just one lunar distance. But in the meantime, more asteroids may just pop-up just like it happened with 2015 TB145.
The monster asteroid expected to whizz past Earth on Halloween was classified as a hazardous space object by experts worldwide, NASA confirmed, since it would fall under the safe distance limit of 4,600, miles or 7,402,982 kilometers.
Nevertheless, scientists are confident that, despite its extreme orbit and the close flyby, 2015 TB145 would not collide with Earth.
NASA has a program to monitor the skies for dangerous asteroids and comets, and from the data provided by its Sentry monitoring system there are almost no chances for a NEO to hit Earth this century.
There were rumors circulating on the Internet that a monster asteroid would slam into Earth last month, but NASA debunked the rumors. The European Space agency (ESA) also has a NEO monitoring program, and the agency closely works with NASA to cover larger parts of the skies. Non-professional astronomers and NEO hunters worldwide are also invited to report any suspicious activity.
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