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It will be too late for Halloween this year, but a skull-like asteroid that some call the "comet of death" is coming back for another visit.
On November 11, the 2015 TB145 asteroid will fly over the Earth at a distance of 25 million kilometers. The first observed flyby of the macabre space rock took place on October 31, 2015. At that time, the rock of space – NASA nicknamed the asteroid "Great Pumpkin" – stole at a much greater distance of about 300,000 miles (see video below). ). The moon revolves around the Earth at an average distance of 239,000 miles.
With a diameter of about 2000 feet, the asteroid is too small and too far away to be seen with the naked eye. It was discovered on October 10, 2015 by the Pan-STARRS telescope high on Haleakala volcano dormant on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
While the first 2015 TB145 radar images indicated that the space rock looked like a human skull, later images showed that it was "a lot rougher" than expected, said Vishnu Reddy, a planetary science professor at Lunar and Planetary. Lab of the University of Arizona. NBC News MACH in an email.
"I do not know why this is called a" comet of death, "said Reddy, who has been researching the asteroid. "There is no scientific basis for such a term, perhaps it is related to the moment of overflight."
It is thought that the asteroid is an extinct comet – the rocky remains of a comet stripped of its ice chips by repeated encounters with the sun. As the comets approach the sun on their elliptical orbital trajectories, the heat converts their ice into gas, which then comes out into space to create the characteristic tail.
The asteroid is classified as potentially dangerous because of its size and proximity to the Earth. But the astronomers who have followed her trajectory say that there is no chance of her colliding with the planet.
The next near approach will not be until 2088, when the asteroid will arrive at 5.4 million miles from Earth.
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