“It’s frightening to think an asteroid this size, approaching so close to Earth, was discovered only 21 days before its closest approach, which just happens to be on Halloween”.
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Named as 2015 TB145, the asteroid will cross Earth from a distance of 4,99,000 kilometers, which scientists claimed, will be closer most seen in past 10 years. The asteroid has a diameter of approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet), and will pass within approximately 480,000 km (300,000 miles) of Earth. Though 2015 TB145, the asteroid is approaching towards earth at speed of 78,000 miles per hour, it is expected to cause no harm to earth.
According to the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, they noticed a previously unidentified asteroid approaching earth earlier this month.
The best time for Floridians to see the asteroid, officially called 2015 TB145, will be pre-dawn on the morning of October. 31. After the asteroid’s flyby on October 31, no space object is going to come as close again until 2027, said NASA.
The asteroid has what is known as an eccentric orbit, which relates to a parameter that determines the amount by which the orbit of an astronomical object around another body deviates from a ideal circle.
The gravitational influence of the asteroid is so small that it will have no detectable effect on the moon or anything here on Earth, including our planet’s tides or tectonic plates, added NASA. “All known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids have less than a 0.01 percent chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years”, NASA reported back in August. “From the information we have, we don’t know of an asteroid that will threaten the population of the United States”, Bolden said while discussing what he believed to be inadequate NASA funding.
For one, the Goldstone Solar System Radar in the California desert will grab a few images of the asteroid just after it makes its close approach to the planet, Agle said.
A map of 2015 TB145’s path on October. 31, 2015.
NASA scientists only became aware of “Spooky” three weeks ago, which would have left precious little time for Bruce Willis to blow it up.
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When the asteroid passes by Earth around 1:05 p.m. ET, it’s expected to be faint and not visible to the naked eye.
