After a series of Nibiru predictions and other devastating elements, our Earth may face another existence threat as reports claim that a giant skull-shaped asteroid will fly across the planet in 2018. According to reports, the asteroid 2015 TB145 was last seen in 2015 and such a thrilling encounter will not be witnessed in the near future until 2088.
On October 10, 2015, Hawaiian astronomers discovered a mysterious asteroid resembling a human skull that measures between 625 and 700 meters that crosses space, using the Pan-STARRS telescope. Few weeks later, on Halloween night, the asteroid was spotted flying across Earth in its closest proximity, only 486,000 km (approximately 300,000 miles) away, or approximately 1.3 times the distance to the moon.
Astronomers around the world, including NASA, worked to discern the characteristics of the asteroid during its approach in 2015.
"On the one hand, we use optical telescopes from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Granada, the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería and the La Hita Observatory in Toledo," Spanish physiologist Pablo Santos-Sanz of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia.org said and added,"On the other hand, we analyzed it in the medium infrared using the VISIR Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Cerro Paranal, Chile."
The scientists estimated that the duration of its day is 2.94 hours that includes the asteroid along with the probable period of rotation. However, it may also be 4.78 hours, which is also consistent with the data.
The study that was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics in February revealed that the asteroid also has a low reflectivity, only slightly more than a piece of coal.
The scientists think that the Halloween asteroid could, in fact, be an extinct comet that lost its volatile compounds after orbiting the sun numerous times. Although asteroids generally have a metallic rocky composition and comets have a greater proportion of ice and rock, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them with certainty. Both of their orbits are also of different types.
Following the speculations of the asteroid flying by in November 2018, the astronomers are planning to gather more data for study.
"Although this approach will not be as favorable, we can obtain new data, which could help improve our knowledge of this mass and other similar masses that are approaching our planet," Santos-Sanz said.
