An asteroid with the shape of a skull that was first seen on Halloween 2015 is making another appearance on Veterans Day, November 11. Officially named TB145 but dubbed the Great Pumpkin for obvious reasons, this asteroid will fly past Earth by a distance of 25 million miles.
The asteroid is thought to be an extinct comet (the rocky remains of a comet that was stripped of its icy bits) and is considered as potentially hazardous because of its size and proximity to Earth. Despite this information, astronomers are not concerned with the asteroid because of its trajectory, which they have already mapped in advance. The last time it zoomed past Earth, it came at a much closer distance of 300,000 miles — still too small to be seen without a telescope.
According to NBC News, the next close encounter that the asteroid will have to Earth will be in 2088, where it’ll come within a distance of 5.4 million miles. Sadly, there will be no added space-spookiness on this or the following years’ Halloween dates.
