Giant asteroid heading towards Earth on Halloween will be ‘closest to

An asteroid designated 2015 TB145 will pass by the Earth at around 1.3 lunar distances (approximately 310,000 miles or about 499,000 km) on October 31 this year.

The radio astronomy installations at both DSN Goldstone, California and the Arecibo array in Puerto Rico intend to track and record the path of 2015 TB145 via radar, which should provide invaluable data for future near-Earth asteroid encounters (of which there are quite a few known according to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program).

The asteroid was spotted by Nasa a fortnight ago, which is relatively short notice for the space agency.

Measuring between 280 and 620 metres in diameter, Coventry and Warwickshire stargazers will be unable to see the asteroid with the naked eye.

The 2015 TB145 asteroid is classified as a potentially hazardous object as it falls well within the 4,600,000 mile threshold of proximity to Earth.

During the flyby, the asteroid will reach a magnitude luminosity of 10, so it should be observable to astronomers with telescopes.

Nasa said it hopes to obtain high resolution images of the asteroid as it passes.

It comes just weeks after doomsdayers claimed the end of the world was nigh after Nasa revealed a giant asteroid is heading towards the planet.

None of the thousands of objects on NASA’s risk monitoring system are regarded as likely to impact earth greatly.

Earlier this year, asteroids 2004 BL86 and 2014 YB35 were also said to be on unsafe near-Earth trajectories, but their flybys in January and March went without incident.

And we’re unlikely to see another large asteroid come this close until 2027, scientists believe.