Space miracle or dud? Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS to fly by Earth; know when to watch | Tech News

Space miracle or dud? Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS to fly by Earth; know when to watch

Comet C/2023 A3 is set to pass Earth in 2024 and it will outshine the night sky, as per astronomers

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Jun 27 2023, 10:39 IST
Best NASA Astronomy Pictures of the week: Comet ZTF, Hydra Galaxy Cluster, Airglow and more
Comet
1/6 Green Comet ZTF sweeps past Mars (Feb 13) - It is a picturesque image of Comet ZTF as it swept past Mars on February 10 and 11. Although the comet is no longer visible to teh naked eye, its picture was captured by astronomers as it appeared as a long faint object speeding away from the Sun. Its dust tail and ion tail were captured towards the bottom-right and the top of the image respectively. (NASA/Donato Lioce)
Comet
2/6 Green Comet ZTF sweeps past Mars (Feb 13) - It is a picturesque image of Comet ZTF as it swept past Mars on February 10 and 11. Although the comet is no longer visible to teh naked eye, its picture was captured by astronomers as it appeared as a long faint object speeding away from the Sun. Its dust tail and ion tail were captured towards the bottom-right and the top of the image respectively. (NASA/Donato Lioce)
Comet
3/6 Heart and Soul Nebulae (Feb 14) - NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on February 14 was a celebration of Valentine's Day in the form of the Heart and the Soul Nebulae which are located about 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized hydrogen, one of three colors shown in this three-color montage. Light takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years.  (NASA/Juan Lozano de Haro)
Comet
4/6 Airglow (Feb 15) - NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for Feb 15 was a stunning picture of Airglow in the skies over Château de Losse in southwest France. It wasn’t just airglow that was visible. Various celestial objects were also seen, including Orion Nebula, California Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Mars, Sirius, Pleiades Star Cluster and the Milky Way Galaxy.  (NASA/Julien Looten)
Comet
5/6 Hydra Galaxy Cluster (Feb 16) - Hydra Cluster of galaxies is one of the three large galaxy clusters within 200 million light-years of the Milky Way and it is surrounded by millions of stars. The galaxy cluster is over 100 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. Three large galaxies near the cluster center, two yellow ellipticals (NGC 3311, NGC 3309) and one prominent blue spiral (NGC 3312), are the dominant galaxies, each about 150,000 light-years in diameter. (NASA/Marco Lorenzi/Angus Lau/Tommy Tse)
image caption
6/6 Asteroid 2023 CX1 (Feb 17) - A 3.2 feet wide asteroid lit up the skies over Europe on February 12 as it turned into a fireball. The asteroid, named SAR 2667 or Asteroid 2023 CX1, turned into a fireball over the European skies where it was captured by astronomers and skywatchers. It was first discovered by Krisztian Sarneczky with a 2-foot telescope at Konkoly Observatory's Piszkesteto Station, located about 100 kilometers northeast from Budapest.   (NASA/Gijs de Reijke)
Comet
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Bright comet named C/2023 A3 may be seen in the Fall of 2024 (Unsplash)

While asteroids pass by Earth virtually every day and some small ones crash into it, Comets are a rarity and when they come calling, it is exciting time not just for the astronomers, but also for the lay public. And that time is here as Comet C/2023 A3, which is also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, is all set to pass by Earth in 2024. Astronomers believe that this comet can be 100 times brighter than the comet ZTF, reports Business Insider. This comet could be the most spectacular sight of the year. However, the comet is more than a year away.

“Pretty much right away, it started a buzz in the comet community, because predictions were putting it all over the place in terms of how bright it could get,” says Ariel Graykowski, a planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute. Fascinatingly, she also believes that it could be even brighter than Venus itself. Right now the comet is millions of miles away.

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About Comet C/2023 A3

According to Business Insider, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) was first discovered by astronomers at Purple Mountain Observatory in China and the Asteroid Terrestrical-impact Last Alert System, ATLAS.

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At first, the comet was believed to be an asteroid but later it was declared that it was a comet. Astronomers are excited about the comet because it was spotted when it was millions of miles away from the Sun and was so clear.

Astronomers believe that the comet will pass by Earth in September 2024.

Will the prediction be accurate?

According to Scientific American, predicting a celestial object can be a fraught exercise. For example, earlier in 1973, comet Kohoutek, was also discovered very early just like Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Astronomers hyped it up and called it “the comet of the century”, but the comet Kohoutek was only as visible as a night star and faded in just a matter of minutes.

“Almost for every case, it's not going to end the way that you predicted... We won't know until we get there,” says Quanzhi Ye, a planetary astronomer at the University of Maryland.

According to astronomers, the comet could fall apart, lose its shine, or even become brighter than expected.

So, brace yourself for this comet as it can be a space miracle, or a space dud, just mark the date in your calendar as it will be visible in late September or early October of next year.

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First Published Date: 27 Jun, 10:39 IST
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