Yes, the discovery circumstances for this comet shares a few characteristics with one of the great comets of the 20 th century: C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp. Adapted from Seiichi Yoshida’s Weekly Information about Bright Comets.įirst though, several caveats are in order. The projected light curve for Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. A phenomenon known as forward scattering may work in the comet’s favor, increasing its apparent brightness.
The comet may reach a brilliant magnitude 0, through +3 or so is more conservative.
Best views are expected around this time as the comet emerges from the Sun’s glare low in the dawn sky, post perihelion. Things get a bit better in the succeeding weeks, as the comet makes its closest Earth approach of 0.476 AU on October 13 th. On an 80,660 year retrograde orbit with a 139 degree inclination relative to the ecliptic plane, the comet will reach perihelion on September 28th, 2024 at 0.39 AU from the Sun… though it will also only be 22 degrees as seen from the Earth, and lost in the Sun’s glare. The orbit of comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, showing it near closest Earth approach. Its current distance is 7.2 AU (670 million miles/1.08 billion kilometers) from the Sun, out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. The specifics for the comet are certainly interesting: the comet was discovered as a faint +19 th magnitude fuzzball, and currently shines at +18 th magnitude in the constellation Serpens Caput. The comet turned up in earlier observations from Purple Mountain Observatory’s XuYi Station going back all the way to January 9 th, 2023, that’s why it ended up with an A3 designation, which is usually reserved for comets discovered in early January.Ī10SVYR (later designated Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) remote imaged by Filipp Romanov on February 24th, 2023. The comet was sighted independently by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) automated sky survey, and earlier data from the Tsuchinshan (Zijinshan or ‘Purple Mountain’) observatory in China, hence the double moniker. The discovery announcement came out of CBAT (The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams) Number 5228 released on February 28th. We’re talking about the recent discovery of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, just announced last week. While the comet should be visible with the naked-eye, EarthSky recommends using binoculars or a telescope for a clearer sight.New Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS may put on a show at the end of next year.Ĭould this one be the next great comet? Though caution is always warranted when it comes to icy interlopers from the Oort Cloud, a recent discovery has given us pause, and a reason to take notice. Around July 22, it'll be closest to Earth. Then it will get closer to the horizon each day, and sometime during mid-July it will be visible in the northwest horizon after sunset. EarthSky reports that on July 11, it will be highest during dawn. So when's the best time to see the comet? Right now, you can see it at dawn. Unexpectedly, the comet has become very bright and amateur astronomers were able to catch sight of it last week. Unlike the ATLAS and SWAN comets earlier this year, Comet NEOWISE actually survived its closest point to the sun (perhielion). Named Comet NEOWISE, it was so far from the sun and shining very faintly at the time it was sighted that it was only visible with large telescopes. In late March, the NEOWISE space telescope discovered the comet, cataloging it as C/2020 F3, according to. Still need more convincing to look up at the sky? A comet (tail and all!) is currently visible. And there's plenty more dazzling celestial sights occurring this month-from Jupiter and Saturn reaching peak brightness to a double meteor shower.
COMET NEOWISE FULL
Shining brightly in the night sky, the full "Buck Moon" stole the show from fireworks on the 4th of July.
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