An incoming comet recently spotted by scope in China and South Africa could be as bright as a major planet in the night sky next year , according to uranologist who read the object .
The comet — an accumulation of rock , rubble , and ice — is send for C/2023 A3 ( Tsuchinshan - ATLAS ) . It was find by astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory in China in January and subsequently by the Asteroid Terrestrial - Impact Last Alert System ( ATLAS ) on February 22,according to the Minor Planet Center .
The comet was later go through in image captured in December by Palomar Observatory , concord to LiveScience .
The comet NEOWISE seen over Nevada in 2020.Image: Ethan Miller (Getty Images)
The object ’s compass is large and elliptical , meaning it completes a journey around the Sun every 80,660 years . Its close approach to the Sun will happen in September 2024,according to EarthSky , and its closest approach to Earth is wait to be on October 13 , 2024 .
But the visitor faces potential annihilation . C/2023 A3 will be get close than Mercury to the Sun — a red-hot formal of gun , if you block , which could hot up up the comet to the point of annihilation .
By astronomers ’ appraisal , the comet will outshine theGreen Comet(C/2022 E3 ( ZTF ) ) , which zipped by Earth for the first time in 50,000 class last month . The Green Comet ’s brightness peaked at around +4.6 , visible in very clear sky to sharp naked eye but more easily with telescopes .
Should C/2023 A3 handle the Sun ’s warmth , it could give a order of magnitude of -5 at its brightest , just about corresponding to the brightness of Venus in the night sky.(For reference , the manifest order of magnitude of the Sun is -26.7 , and the full Moon ’s is -11 . )
We ’ll know more about the comet ’s potential survivability — as well as detail , like its size — as it continues its trek toward and around the middle of our solar system .
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