WACO, Texas (KWTX) – If you happened to go outside and look at the night sky this weekend, you might have caught a glimpse of a rare comet slowly making its way across Earth’s sky.

This comet hasn’t passed by Earth in 80,000 years and now is your only chance to see it with your own eyes.

“It really is maybe once in a lifetime,” said Johnny Barton of the Central Texas Astronomical Society.

What makes this particular comet so rare, according to Barton, is its high visibility.

“Normally we don’t get to see a comet this bright very often, about every 20 years we see a comet that is visible to the naked eye,” he explained.

It was first discovered by an observatory in China in January 2023 and was later confirmed as a comet by the ATLAS group, giving it the name C-2023 A3 Tsuchinshan Atlas.

After months of watching this comet travel through space, it is finally here, but only for a short time.

“It’s about 44 million miles from Earth, it made its next flyby on the 12th and is now moving away from us,” Barton said.

The best visibility was last weekend, but it will still be visible in the next few days.

In fact, the comet’s tail becomes longer the further it gets from Earth due to the Sun’s gravitational pull.

Barton shared: “It was very impressive last night and it will be very impressive the next few nights too.” You just need to know when and where to look.

Barton explained: “It will take until about 7:30 to 7:45 a.m., maybe even around 8 a.m., before it gets dark enough to see anything… and it will be in the same area where the sun went down.” is.” “.

If you need help searching, all you need to do is grab a pair of binoculars or simply use your phone’s camera.

Barton warns that it will become harder to see as it flies back into space at a speed of about 180,000 miles per hour.

“Every night it will fluctuate about four to five degrees in the sky, so every night it will get a little higher and a little further away from us every night,” he said.

And once this comet is gone, it won’t be visible from Earth for another 80,000 years, so be sure to get out there and take some photos.

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