Reflecting on the Skull-Shaped 'Great Pumpkin' Asteroid Flyby

Looking back at asteroid 2015 TB145, which safely flew past Earth on Halloween sporting a chilling human skull appearance.

Marking a memorable milestone in planetary radar astronomy, asteroid 2015 TB145 famously zipped past Earth during Halloween. Discovered just weeks prior by Pan-STARRS, the asteroid revealed a striking resemblance to a human skull when radar images were captured by the Arecibo Observatory.

Passing at a safe distance of approximately 300,000 miles, the object posed zero threat to our planet. The event highlighted the critical importance of rapid radar imaging and Near-Earth Object (NEO) tracking infrastructure.