The Slooh telescope table service has captured mental image of the “ flighty ” Halloween asteroid , formally know as TB145 . The resilient on-line observatory will also track the newly discovered asteroid as it completes its journeying past Earth this Saturday .
The images were guide this week by telescopes at ESA ’s Optical Ground Station in the Canary Islands . It present the asteroid , which will zoom along past Earth at 125,000 kilometers per hour ( 78,000 miles per hour ) on October 31 , 2015 at a distance of just 480,000 kilometers ( 300,000 miles ) .
Frighteningly , this asteroid was only discover on October 10 , and it ’s travelling fairly close to Earth .
The asteroid is shown in this vivification moving across the sky . The framing are give minutes aside . icon citation : Slooh
In a statement , Paul Cox , a host forSlooh , said : “ It ’s frightening to remember an asteroid this size , approaching so close to Earth , was find only 21 - days before its closest approach shot , which just happens to be on Halloween . If that does n’t give you the chills , nothing will . ”
He added : “ Slooh member are get over the asteroid every nighttime so as to reduce the dandy uncertainty of its position , size , and highly unusual orbit – we ca n’t afford to drop off sight of an object this big which has happened repeatedly in the past . ”
Slooh will cover the approach of the asteroid in a lively streamedonline broadcast . host from Slooh , along with a team of experts on asteroids and representatives from NASA , will discuss the risk of near Earth asteroid , what would go on if an asteroid this sizing hit Earth and why they only discovered the asteroid a few weeks ago . you may check out the Slooh broadcast live on the player below on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. EDT / 9:30 a.m. PDT / 4:30 p.m. GMT .
