The Death Comet asteroid will pass by Earth for the second time

On October 31, 2015, NASA observed a strange-looking asteroid making a close pass of Earth. This asteroid, known as 2015 TB145, was monitored by numerous observatories and radar facilities of the Deep Space Network. Because of its timing and skull-like shape, scientists nicknamed it the «Death Comet.»

Naturally, there was no cause for concern, as the asteroid posed no threat and passed at a distance of 498,900 km from Earth. This year, the «Death Comet» will pass us for a second time, this time shortly after Halloween.

Asteroid 2015 TB145 was first discovered on October 10, 2015, by the Panoramic Survey and Rapid Response Survey Telescope (Pan-STARRS-1), part of the New Earth Observing Observatory (NEOO) program. At the time, the flyby of this asteroid, which has a diameter of 400 meters, was the closest asteroid discovered since 1999.

In 2015, TB145 was determined to be a «dead comet,» meaning that after numerous passes around the Sun, it has lost its volatile elements (e.g., ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, etc.) and no longer has a tail.

2015 TB145 poses no threat to life on Earth. The asteroid is predicted to make its closest approach to Earth on November 11, reaching a distance of approximately 38.6 million km from the surface. This is approximately ten times the average distance between Earth and the Moon (384,399 km), or a quarter of the distance between Earth and the Sun (149.6 million km).

The next closest pass will be on November 1, 2088, at a distance of just over 8 million kilometers.