Spooky Scary Space

This Halloween the scariest thing might not be the skeletons and ghosts. This Saturday, Halloween, an asteroid zipped past Earth 300,000 miles away. The asteroid, nicknamed “Spooky” or “Great Pumpkin”, was seen as it flew past Hawaii and is vaguely skull shaped. Sadly the distance from Earth made it difficult to see with a blind eye, but pictures were captured confirming that it was in fact, a Halloween themed meteor! These pictures showed that it was bigger than originally expected, and was faster too. At the time, it was going 78,293 miles per hour and, according to expert Mark Boslough, “would generate a 6-mile-wide crater if it were to [hit] the earth.”

There is some debate whether it is a comet or an asteroid, as it doesn’t really fall into either category. It flew too high to be an asteroid, but it reflected more light than a comet. Some scientist believe it is a dead comet, although there is no firm conclusion. Scientists also believe that “Spooky” will be the last large comet to come by the earth until 2027, so no more close calls until then.

http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-meteors-meteorites/skull-shaped-halloween-asteroid-zips-by-earth-151102.htm