Asteroid the size of Empire State Building to pass incredibly close to Earth on Halloween

An orbit diagram of 2015 TB145. (NASA)

A massive asteroid is expected to pass by Earth on Halloween in the closest fly-by since 2006.

NASA discovered the asteroid, dubbed 2015 TB145 on Oct. 10 using Pan-STARRS 1. The asteroid is described as being "extremely eccentric" and will come 1.3 lunar distances (310,000 miles) from Earth around 11:14 a.m., at 78,000 mph.

The asteroid will be the closest object to fly by Earth since NEO 2004 XP14 flew past at 1.1 lunar distances.

NASA says the asteroid, which measures about 920 to 2,034 feet in diameter will safely pass Earth.

Gizmodo reports that the asteroid should be visible in the Northern Hemisphere to astronomers with telescopes.

This is the closest approach by an object this big until 1999 AN10 in August, 2027.