The "asteroid calavera" will return in 2018

The dead comet, between 625 and 700 meters long, will pass 105 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

At the end of 2018, a small object from the Solar System will make us a second visit since its discovery in 2015. It is called 2015 TB145, but for obvious reasons it is also known as the Halloween asteroid or "the asteroid calavera".

In fact, if you look at it from the right angle, it looks like an almost perfect human skull. More black than coal, it is a "dead comet" whose closest approach to Earth occurred during his last visit, on October 31, 2015. That day, the chilling asteroid passed "alone" 486,000 kilometers away from us.

The next visit of 2018, however, will be very different. The pronounced orbital inclination of the asteroid will not happen again as close as in 2015 in the next 500 years, so on the next occasion, in November of the year that is about to enter, will cross 105 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.