Emily Alpert
Wired
A huge asteroid is set to fly past Earth on Halloween, and it will come the closest to Earth that a large asteroid has in nearly ten years.
The asteroid -- which has been named 2015 TB145 and is estimated to be between 280 to 620 metres in diameter -- was discovered only two weeks ago by Nasa's PanSTARR programme in Hawaii, which employs a number of telescopes and cameras to identify near Earth objects.
2015 TB145 will pass 310,000 miles away from Earth -- or 1.3 lunar distances -- around 30% further away than the Moon. It will pass by at 78,000 miles per hour -- a speed Nasa describe as 'unusually high'. The asteroid is, according to Nasa, 'probably cometary in nature' and on 'an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit'.
Although the asteroid will mark the closest approach of such a large asteroid for ten years, it will pose 'no threat' to the Earth Nasa said.
"There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office, said in a press release. "Not a single one known object has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century."
The close encounter means that Nasa will be able to capture high resolution images of the object.
"This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027," they said in a report on the asteroid. "The flyby presents a truly outstanding scientific opportunity to study the physical properties of this object."
Amateur stargazers wishing to spot the asteroid will be able to see it -- though not with the naked eye. It can be spotted through telescopes of an 8 inch diameter and larger, passing across Orion on the night of 30 October and early morning of 31 October.
A big asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and will shave past our planet on Halloween, but astronomers say there's no need to be spooked - it's definitely not on a collision course.
Early estimates put its size of the asteroid - called 2015 TB145 - at about 1,542 feet (470 metres) in diameter, according to the astronomy website Earth and Sky.
It is expected to be the largest known cosmic body to get near our planet until 2027, said the US space agency NASA.
"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," Earth and Sky said.
The good news is this asteroid will pass at a very safe distance of about 310,000 miles (nearly 500,000 kilometers), or 1.3 times the span between the Earth and the Moon.
The asteroid will actually pass closer to the Moon than the Earth, skimming by at a distance of 180,000 miles.
Astronomers may be able to spot it with telescopes, though amateur skywatchers will likely not be able to see it with the naked eye.
The time of the closest pass is 11:14 am US Eastern time (1514 GMT) on October 31.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/science-and-tech/halloween-asteroid-shave-past-earth-astronomers-say#sthash.oCbG3uGq.dpuf
