An asteroid is said to cross the Earth this coming October 31 which means a surprise visitor for the coming Halloween.
The asteroid 2015 TB145, also known as the "Great Pumpkin" will be crossing Earth this Halloween. Astronomers estimated that 2015 TB14 will be at 300,000 miles near the Earth which is quite a close distance according to some.
In terms of its size, the asteroid has a width of 400 meters making it one of the largest asteroids to cross to Earth. It was projected that the next asteroid of this size will come close to the planet in the year 2027. It can be remembered that 1999 AN10 was also an asteroid of this size which crossed just about the moon's orbit.
As what Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had calculated, "Great Pumpkin" is travelling at a very high speed of 126,000 km/h thus endangering our planet if ever it will come to contact.
Paul Chodas described the behavior of the asteroid and also stated if it can be observed by individuals.
"At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than about 300,000 miles. 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," said by the manager of the North Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The "Great Pumpkin" was first detected by the Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) of the University of Hawaii which is an active participant in NASA's near-Earth object observation program.
Right now, asteroid 2015 TB145 is not yet fully known. However, Chodas stated that much detailed information will be obtained after it will be studied by other advanced observatories such as GoldStone Deep Space Communications Complex in California and Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
