News

“Skull Asteroid” passing by Earth today

Halloween is pretty scary to some of us, and it’s even scarier today because an asteroid will pass by earth, at a pretty close distance. It also looks like a skull.

The asteroid named TB145 has been nicknamed the “skull asteroid” because of an image generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation Observatory in Puerto Rico, which just so happens to look like a skull.

While the asteroid will not pose a threat to earth or the moon, it will be at a close distance. At 1p.m. eastern time, the asteroid will be at it’s closest point to earth at 302-thousand miles. For perspective, the moon orbits at just under 240-thousand miles.

There is some controversy as to whether it’s an asteroid or a comet. Scientists originally thought it was an asteroid, but recently some experts think it may be a dead comet. This is a comet which no longer has any ice or water on it’s surface.

0
Comments on this article