If you're suffering from Halloween withdrawal, a spooky asteroid will soon be here to help.
The famously skull-shaped space rock 2015 TB145 will zoom past Earth on Nov. 11, coming within 24 million miles (38 million kilometers) of our planet. That's about one-fourth the distance from Earth to the sun, which is 93 million miles (150 million km).
2015 TB145's last Earth flyby was much closer, and much more appropriately timed. On Halloween night in 2015, the asteroid cruised within 301,986 miles (486,000 km) of our planet — just 1.25 times the Earth-moon distance.
During that close approach, astronomers imaged 2015 TB145 using big radar telescopes such as the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, revealing the space rock's startling visage.
As its name suggests, 2015 TB145 was discovered in 2015. The 2,050-foot-wide (625 meters) space rock, which some researchers think is a dead comet, takes about three years to complete one lap around the sun.
But that doesn't mean Earth will get another visit in 2021. Indeed, 2015 TB145 won't get anywhere near Earth again until 2082, when it will fly by at about one-third the Earth-sun distance. So we don't have anything to fear from this scary-looking rock for the foreseeable future.
Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.
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