Halloween asteroid resembling skull narrowly misses Earth

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. A large space rock resembling a skull narrowly missed Earth shortly after 1 p.m. ET Saturday. NASA says asteroid 2015 TB145 is a "dead" comet that once spewed debris across the solar system. In NASA terminology, that means it has "shed its volatiles" that would produce the visible tail seen on some comets. “Armenpresss” reports the aforementioned referring to CNN.

It missed Earth by about 300,000 miles (slightly farther away than the moon). The rock, dubbed 2015 TB145, was visible to those with good telescopes.

As viewed from Earth the asteroid was traveling through Orion on October 30-31.

It's a good thing it missed our planet, though. The asteroid is estimated to be 600 meters wide and traveling at 78,000 mph. By comparison, the meteorite that exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was about 20 meters wide.

This isn't the first time an asteroid has come close to our planet in late October. On October 30, 1937, the binary asteroid Hermes -- an alarmingly regular visitor to these parts -- came within 500,000 miles of Earth. Hermes' two parts are each about 600 to 900 meters wide.