A creaky asteroid-skull grounded by the earth

Better late for Halloween than ever before: a smiling skull-like asteroid is expected to hit Earth on November 11th.

The 2015 TB145 asteroid was first discovered in 2015, while it was 486,000 kilometers from the Earth on Halloween day. According to the NASA Reaction Propulsion Laboratory's small body objects database, the next flyover of the asteroid will not be as close; it will pass about 38 million kilometers from our planet. It's about a quarter of the distance between the Earth and the sun.

The next time TB 145 approaches Earth in 2015 will not be until 2082, when it will rise to about one third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Its orbit will bring it closer to Venus and Mercury in 2024, 2028 and 2037.

Scientists had the opportunity to take spooky images of 2015 TB 145 during its first visit to the planet, in 2015. The images showed an essentially spherical rock with footprints resembling gaping orbits and a hole in nose, at least from certain angles.

According to a study conducted in 2017, the asteroid is about 625 meters wide, making it a relative glitch in astronomical terms. (For comparison, the asteroid supposed to have eliminated the dinosaurs measured about 6 km, or 10 km.)

The skeletal rock did not affect the Earth during its 2015 flyby, and the asteroid will have no effect on the planet during its passage farther in November. However, the researchers found that the asteroid is not only spooky, but also special. According to NASA researchers, the asteroid's oblong orbit and speed suggest that it would be a dead comet, devoid of its frozen debris tail by too many sun turns. The tails of comets are tails of dust and gas that flow behind a comet because of solar radiation.

Although the Halloween asteroid does not come very close to the Earth during its overflight, it will happen some close shave with other space rocks in the near future. According to scientist Thomas G. Müller, an expert in physics at Max-Planck Institute for Physics, an asteroid named AN10 1999 will rise to 299,196 km from the Earth on April 13, 2027. An asteroid named 99942 Apophis after the Egyptian god of evil, will travel on Earth at a distance of only 37 400 km, about one tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.