Just in time for Halloween...

Started by Beguile's Mistress, October 31, 2015, 03:40:45 PM

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Beguile's Mistress

Skull-shaped asteroid will fly past Earth


As if Halloween needed to be any scarier, a giant skull is flying through space toward Earth.

"The (Infrared Telescope Facility) data may indicate that the object might be a dead comet, but in the Arecibo images it appears to have donned a skull costume for its Halloween flyby," said Kelly Fast, IRTF program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

Earth is in no real danger, though; NASA projects the object - officially "asteroid TB145" - will pass by Earth from about 302,000 miles away at about noon CST on Halloween.

Still, for Halloween drama it's hard to beat a giant space skull.

The object was first spotted Oct. 10 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui. It's next Earth flyby will come in September 2018, although at a much farther distance: about 24 million miles.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/skull-shaped-asteroid-will-fly-past-earth-on-halloween/ar-BBmEhE3?li=BBgzzfc

Oreo


She led me to safety in a forest of green, and showed my stale eyes some sights never seen.
She spins magic and moonlight in her meadows and streams, and seeks deep inside me,
and touches my dreams. - Harry Chapin