‘Spooky’: the 1,300ft-wide asteroid to hurtle close to Earth on Halloween

TB145, a medium-sized chunk of rock and ice could that cause ‘continental-scale devastation’, will fly by at a distance slightly farther away than the moonA large asteroid discovered only weeks ago will tear past the Earth on Halloween, Nasa has announced, estimating that it will come closer than any object of its size in the next 20 years.The asteroid, nicknamed “the Great Pumpkin” and “Spooky” but technically known as TB145, is an estimated 1,300ft (400 meters) wide – 20 times bigger than the meteorite that screamed across the Russian sky and exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, shattering windows with shock waves and debris that injured more than a thousand people. Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - October 23, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Alan Yuhas in New York Tags: Asteroids US news Nasa Astronomy Science Space Source Type: news