A Christmas comet ’ s coming, a Christmas comet ’ s coming

TL:DR – Towards the end of 2024 there may be a bright, new comet in the sky. Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS If you’re lucky enough to get a clear sky…it’s snowing here, so no chance…look up at the constellation known as constellation Serpens Caput with your big telescope and you might see a faint fuzzball. It’s an icy visitor from the far reaches of the solar system, the Oort Cloud, and it’s heading this way. Give or take. Thankfully, it is not on a collision course. Right now, this comet, which was first spotted in early January is about a billion kilometres from Earth, just past the orbit of Jupiter. But, as we approach Christmas 2024, we might be in for a treat as it flares up and becomes visible to the naked eye. You can find all the details of the discovery, the name, and what to expect from Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on the Universe Today website. Comet NEOWISE in 2020 Late last year, you may well have caught sight of another comet, the green comet, C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which never did live up to hopes of outshining the stars. And, of course who can forget the early months of COVID when some of us were distracted by Comet NEOWISE [C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)]. I managed to get some mediocre photos of that comet when we escaped COVID lockdown and had a few days at the coast. Comets are typically named after their discoverers or a group of discoverers, with the addition of a prefix indicating the type of comet. The prefixes used ar...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Astronomy Source Type: blogs