Costumes, candy, and…mysterious asteroids? Along with the usual drunken debauchery and adolescent shenanigans, we can expect another out-of-the-ordinary occurrence this Halloween. A giant, stadium-sized hunk of space rock will fly scary close to earth’s orbit.
NASA’s calling the asteroid 2015 TB145, but it’s already received a festive nickname: “Spooky.” Scientists discovered the rock just two weeks ago, which is frightening considering its grandeur and how close it will come. According to NASA’s website, the meteor will pass within 310,000 miles of the earth; that’s just shy of the moon’s distance. This will be the closest object of this size to pass by earth since 2006 and there won’t be another until 2027…so they say, muah haha hah.
But don’t go being a dinosaur for Halloween just yet…get it? Get it!? (Because the dinosaurs died from an asteroid, duh.) Reports from NASA say the space rock will pass by Earth safely, sparing humanity from mass extinction. Around 11 am on October 31, the asteroid will be visible in the western hemisphere but without a proper telescope, you probably won’t be able to see it. That means no toy store telescopes.
And you should be really glad that this puppy far enough away. Remember that crazy meteor caught on film by crazy Russians on their crazy dash cams in 2013? By comparison, that falling rock was only about 20 meters wide and it broke the sound barrier. This one is estimated to be about 600 meters wide. Waking up with a severe Halloween hangover and vampire hickies on your neck is a lot better than waking up dead.
