Nasa predicts near-miss with asteroid on Halloween
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This Halloween, an asteroid is going to be flying closer to Earth than any has since 2006, according to Nasa
An asteroid is due to pass by Earth on Halloween and miss us by a whisker, according to Nasa.
Well, if whiskers were 499,000km long, at any rate. The asteroid was spotted by Nasa a fortnight ago and is set to fly past the Earth on Halloween at over 78,000mph.
It will cross by Earth at the closest it's been since 2006.
The space agency explained why they spotted it at such short notice, despite constantly montoring the size.
They said: "The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit."
We won't be able to see the asteroid with the naked eye, but anyone with access to a telescope will be able to see it as it passes by.
"This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027," said Nasa.
The space agency has described the asteroid as 'hazardous' as it falls well within 4,600,000 mile threshold of proximity to Earth.
The orbit is also erratic, so we can't exactly tell where it will go. However, despite this, Nasa is confident that it will not hit us.
On October 10th, asteroid 86666 (2000 FL 10) passed safely by Earth and was considered a near-miss at a distance of 15 million miles away.
This asteroid will come even closer than that one, but there is still no real need to worry.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid 2015 UM52 2015 UL52 2015 TL238 2015 UH 2015 TB145 2015 TD179 2005 UL5 2003 EB50 2007 BG29 1998 WT24 2011 YD29 2003 SD220 2008 CM
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
Source:spaceweather.com
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