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Sunday 1 November 2015

from Space Comes...THE SKULL!!!

Just in case you did not know, this was the other asteroid (after the last three) that was going to "crash into Earth killing all life" and I think the internet and panic spreaders ought to start being fined for spreading panic because there are a lot of very nervous people out there.

But on to the fun!


'Skull' Asteroid Skims Past On Halloween

Sky Online:http://news.sky.com/story/1579225/skull-asteroid-skims-past-on-halloween
Asteroid in Earth flyby

A large asteroid which bears an eerie resemblance to a human skull has narrowly missed Earth.

Known as 2015 TB145 and discovered just three weeks ago, the 1,300ft-diameter rock shot past the planet at around 5pm on Halloween.

It came within about 300,000 miles of Earth, farther away than the moon but relatively close by cosmic measures.

Astronomers were hoping to capture radar images and other measurements of the asteroid to find out more about its shape, dimensions, surface features and other characteristics.

NASA scientist Kelly Fast said: "The IRTF [NASA's 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."

Aside from pure scientific value, the encounter could help develop better tracking techniques and counter-measures for asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth.

Mr Chodas said: "If we ever had to deflect an asteroid we would need to know a lot about it. And we don't know much about asteroids in general, their structure, how strong they are, are they fill of holes, is it like swiss cheese or are they more solid.

"We really don't know the average density of a lot of the asteroid types so we need to learn more about how asteroids are put together, their structure, if we ever want to deflect one that's headed toward the earth."

Small space rocks rain down on Earth constantly, with most disintegrating as they blaze through the atmosphere.

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