Asteroid “2015 TB145” Set to Fly by Earth on Halloween


Jack-o'-Lantern 2003-10-31 News from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has announced  a football-stadium sized asteroid is scheduled to hurdle past Earth on Halloween day.

The giant space rock will come closer to Earth than any asteroid has in the last 10 years and is said to be traveling at an “unusually fast pace” of 35km/sec.  The asteroid’s name is 2015 TB145 and it’s size is estimated to be between 280 m to 620 m.

According to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program, all known potentially hazardous asteroids have a 0.01% chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years (1).

NASA scientists are tracking the asteroids scheduled flyby  asteroid with several optical observatories and the radar capabilities of the agency’s Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California.

According to NASA, 2015 TB145 will fly past Earth at a safe distance slightly farther than the moon’s orbit on  Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT)

Paul Chodas, Manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Observations Program stated that, “There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth.”

What is worrisome to some people is that the giant asteroid was not known to be heading our direction until October 21 2015, a mere 10 days prior to it’s scheduled passing. NASA has assured the public that the asteroid is within safe distance from Earth.

To read more about the new Halloween asteroid flyby, see the full article here on R&D or visit the NASA NEO Program website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *