Forget Comet ZTF, Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS could shine brighter than stars

A recently discovered Comet could shine brighter than the stars, and could become an even better sight than Comet ZTF.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Mar 14 2023, 11:11 IST
Where do comets come from?
What are Comets?
1/6 Most comets come from the Kuiper belt, a region beyond the orbit of Neptune comets from this neighborhood usually take 200 years or less to make one orbit around the sun. These are called short-period comets. (NASA)
What are Comets?
2/6 Comets also come from their other hangout Oort cloud, a far-far-distant cloud, sending some flying into the inner solar system. (Pixabay)
What are Comets?
3/6 When they are at home in the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt comets are just dull, dark chunks of ice, dust, and rock. In this state, they may not be much different from asteroids. (NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery)
image caption
4/6 Sometimes the gravitational pull of a planet can disturb comets in the Kuiper Belt and fly one headlong toward the sun. Notably, Jupiter's strong gravity can turn a long-period comet into a short-period one. (NASA)
What are Comets?
5/6 The Sun's gravitational pull takes over, shaping the comet's path into an elliptical orbit. The comet travels faster and faster as it nears the sun swings and goes around close to the backside, then heads back to more or less where it came from. (Pixabay)
image caption
6/6 What makes comets look fuzzy and have tails? As comets get closer to the sun and begin to warm up, some of their materials start to boil off. This material forms a cloud around the nucleus. The cloud is called the coma and may stretch over hundreds of thousands of miles across. (NASA)
What are Comets?
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Comet C/2023 A3 will be visible from Earth in 2024. (NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery)

Although Comets often make trips to Earth, the Comet ZTF which passed Earth last month was an extremely rare sight. It has a period of approximately 50000 years, meaning it was witnessed by Neanderthals the last time it passed by Earth. A comet also orbits the Sun, but unlike an asteroid, it's composed of ice and dust. When a comet gets close to the Sun, its ice and dust content start to vaporize. So, when seen in a telescope, a comet appears fuzzy and has a tail. Now just a month after its passing, it seems like Comet ZTF has become old news as a new Comet is expected to pass by Earth in 2024, and it could be a special one.

Comet C/2023 A3 discovery

The Comet, known as C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, which scans the night sky for moving objects and reports any potential detections. Shockingly, the comet was initially mistaken for an asteroid and was only later determined that it was the same object captured 6 weeks prior by the Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan) in the east of Nanjing, China.

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The images of Comet C/2023 A3 were also captured using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory on December 22, according to space.com. After studying the images, it was revealed that the object had a short tail and condensed coma which confirmed that the object was indeed a comet, and not an asteroid.

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What's special about Comet C/2023 A3?

When initially discovered in the constellation Serpens about 1.09 billion years away from the Sun, Comet C/2023 A3 was faint. However, when this Comet reaches its closest point to the Sun on Sept. 27, 2024, the Comet will be near Mercury's orbit and at a much closer distance. This change in solar distance will increase the Comet's intrinsic luminosity by 17 magnitudes, according to space.com.

Just two weeks after this, Comet C/2023 A3 will pass Earth at its closest distance of 71 million kilometers on October 12, 2024. And on October 17, it will appear low in the west-southwest evening sky from 1 to 3 hours after the sunset.

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First Published Date: 14 Mar, 11:10 IST
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