An asteroid larger than the Empire State Building will hurtle close to Earth on Halloween, giving those with backyard telescopes a rare opportunity to see the mountainous rock fly by.
Scientists have appropriately nicknamed the cosmic rock – which has zero threat of colliding with the planet -- “Spooky.”
And in the spirit of Halloween, Spooky seemed to creep up on NASA researchers, who didn’t know the asteroid existed until three weeks ago. That’s “a real small window,” according to one space expert.
“We never even knew this giant mountain of a rock existed before October 10 … it’s usually a few months or a year in advance,” Andrew Fazekas, an astronomy columnist for National Geographic, told CTV News Channel on Sunday.
Spooky, which is estimated to measure 290 to 650 meters wide, will be visible just past midnight as it soars through the Orion constellation in Canada’s eastern skies.
Travelling at 78,000 km/h – about 29 times faster than a speeding bullet – the asteroid will glide 100,000 kilometres outside the moon’s orbit.
That close distance gives astronomers a prime research opportunity, Fazekas said.
“Because it’s coming this close (and) is such a large rock, astronomers will be able to make very accurate measurements of its size and other physical properties, which will help us understand better these asteroids that do come near Earth,” he said.
Spooky will be too faint to spot with the naked eye, but anyone with a telescope with at least an eight-inch (20-centimetre) mirror should be able to see the asteroid, Fazekas said.
NASA will also be following the celestial event and broadcasting images online.
“NASA is really gearing up with all its radar telescopes trying to really get the best imaging ever of a near-coming asteroid,” Fazekas said.
The next time an asteroid of Spooky’s size is expected to come close to Earth is August 2027, when 1999 AN10 passes by at about the distance of the moon. That is, unless another rock happens to sneak up on researchers.
