In the next year 2018, this asteroid with the shape of a human skull returns to Earth. That is also a dead comet.
IN 2018 A SKULL-SHAPED ASTEROID WILL PASS CLOSE TO EARTH
TB145 is a dead comet of a black color like coal, it has the vague shape of a human skull and the first time it visited us was on Halloween 2015. In 2018 it will go back to Earth, and we will be able to examine it more closely.
The orbital period of this curious asteroid is 1,112 days, a little over three years. As such, this step is delayed a little with each round. In 2015 the spent next to Earth on Halloween. While in 2018 he will do so at the beginning of November.
Despite its ominous aspect, we have nothing to fear from this piece of rock. The pass it gave in 2015 was the closest in the next 500 years. When he visits us in 2018, he will do it at 105 times the distance. That separates us from the Moon, more than enough to not fear that the black skull of space will fall on our heads.
TB145 measures between 625 and 700 meters wide. Its small size and the fact that until recently it remained beyond the orbit of Mars are the reasons why we did not know it until 2015.
Its unusually eccentric orbit suggests that it is a dead comet. That is, it is a comet that has lost all the ice and dust that formed its tail, and there is only rock left. Astronomers hope to study TB145 more closely next year and check, among other things, if it maintains that skull shape.