A large meteorite dubbed the “Great Pumpkin” because of its coincidence with the feast of Halloween, reached today at 17:01 GMT its closest point to Earth, when he approached a just a little more distance the Moon, and then continue its journey through space.
“It’s close, very close (…) seems a skull rotating. It’s like the giant head of a white bear,” he exclaimed astronomer Bob Berman, pointing to the images of stellar rock, which broadcast on the Internet “Slooh” community, which has an agreement with the US Space Agency (NASA).
“The danger that even was there is gone. So within a few minutes, “said the astronomer.
The images broadcast live by the community” Slooh “portrayed a bright and fast space rock, the size of four football fields (400 meters diameter) that moved at a speed of 35 kilometers per second, which is a speed 29 times that of a rifle bullet.
Those who could get hold of a small telescope could see a small bright spot, reflecting the moonlight and was traveling at a high speed.
The space rock, technically called 2015 TB145, was first sighted 21 days ago, October 10, by telescopes of the University of Hawaii (USA) and, since then, NASA has monitored the trajectory of celestial object that never was a danger to Earth.
But, the night of witches, the passage of an asteroid as big and as close to Earth has sparked debate in the scientific community, which considers crucial to know the structure of meteorites for how these stellar rocks can be destroyed, if they come Earth too.
“The probability that such a large meteorite hit the Earth is one in a million. (..) But, hey, if for example it is directed directly to the city of New York, the city would be completely destroyed. Although it is extremely unlikely, “said astrophysicist Mark Boslough.
Boslough, who works at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), warned that if the” Great Pumpkin “had reached Earth would have produced a huge crater, destroyed trees and even caused an earthquake of 7.6 degrees on the Richter scale.
“If you hit the ocean could produce a tsunami. We do not know for sure. We are now studying how the energy of a meteorite could be transmitted to the water, “said astrophysicist.
In order to advance the research of these bodies, NASA scientists began Friday to launch waves Radio into the asteroid from the antennas of up to 34 meters long complex Goldstone, Calif.
The radio waves throwing antennas bounce off the asteroid and are collected by two NASA centers, located in West Virginia and Puerto Rico and is responsible for collecting waves and shaping images of the rock star, the space agency expects to process with a resolution of up to two meters per pixel.
According to initial calculations NASA’s “Great Pumpkin” got close to 480,000 kilometers from Earth, equivalent to 1.3 times the distance between our planet from the moon.
The last time an object of similar size approached Earth was in July 2006, when the asteroid 2004 XP14 was able to approach 1.1 times the distance separating the Earth from the moon, according to NASA catalog on nearby objects Earth.
Until August 2027, the amateur astronomers can not see another asteroid to pass as close as “the Great Pumpkin.”
They will have to wait until the Rock 1999 AN10 which will approach almost 384,400 kilometers, the same distance that separates our planet’s lunar satellite, according to NASA.
In the coming days, the US space agency will provide images of the spatial phenomenon with pumpkin shape by the magic of Halloween and continue to delight the curious space many days after his time on earth, only one stop of his journey through the vastness of space.
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