The “Death Comet” Will Pass By Earth Just After Halloween
On October 31st, 2015, NASA tracked a strange-looking comet as it made a close flyby of Earth. This asteroid, known as 2015 TB145, was monitored by the multiple observatories and radar installation of the agency’s Deep Space Network. Because of the timing and the skull-like appearance of this asteroid, scientists nicknamed it the “Death Comet”.
Naturally, there was no reason to worry, as the asteroid posed no threat and passed within about 498,900 km (310,000 mi) of Earth. But the timing and the appearance of the comet were nothing if not chilling. And coincidentally enough, the “Death Comet” (aka. “The Great Pumpkin Comet”), will be passing Earth for the second time, this time shortly after Halloween.
“The trajectory of 2015 TB145 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than about 300,000 miles — 480,000 kilometers or 1.3 lunar distances. Even though that is relatively close by celestial standards, it is expected to be fairly faint, so night-sky Earth observers would need at least a small telescope to view it.” – Paul Chodas, the manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Once again, 2015 TB145 will pose no threat to life on Earth. According to the Mother Nature Network, it will make its closest pass to Earth on November 11th, reaching a distance of about 38.6 million km (24 million mi) from the surface. This is roughly one-hundred times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon (384,399 km; 238,855 mi), or a quarter of the distance between the Earth and the Sun (149.6 million km; 93 million mi).
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