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    • The comet, visible in the night sky, only passes by every 80,000 years
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    The comet, visible in the night sky, only passes by every 80,000 years

    Idris Bevan Posted on

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    If you miss this, there will be no second chances.

    Comet C/2023 A3 Tschinshan-ATLAS will be at its closest point to Earth (44 million miles) on Saturday and should be visible to the naked eye in the western sky shortly after sunset. The comet will be visible until October, initially without binoculars and later with binoculars. But once it moves away, it won’t come back for another 80,000 years.

    “This weekend will be one of the better times to discover it; it comes out of the bright sunlight,” said Shannon Schmoll, director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University.

    Comets are large objects made of dust and ice that orbit the sun. These ancient objects, best known for their long, flowing tails, are remnants of the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. The now-appearing comet gets its name from those who first discovered it last year: the Tsuchinshan, or “Purple Mountain,” observatory in China and the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System) telescope in South Africa.

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    Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comes from the Oort Cloud, a barrier of icy debris surrounding our solar system, far beyond Pluto. Some comets orbit Earth relatively frequently – one, known as Encke’s Comet, passes by every 3.3 years. The famous Halley’s Comet comes every 76 years. It was last visible from Earth in 1986 and will return in 2061.

    However, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS’s orbit is highly elliptical, meaning it won’t make another visit to the inner solar system for another 80,000 years.

    Since comets are made of ice, many do not survive their direct encounter with our sun. But Tsuchinshan-ATLAS survived its next flyby of the Sun on September 27 and is moving on.

    How can you see it? Look west-southwest about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset and it should be low on the horizon, Schmoll said. Because it is so low, a clear view to the west would be helpful, she said. It should be near the bright star Arcturus and the bright planet Venus as they rise in the night sky and lie between them by Monday.

    “It should also be visible through the rest of October, but the further it moves, the higher in the night sky but further from the sun, so less bright,” Schmoll said. “By the end of October, you’ll probably need binoculars to see it.

    “We won’t see this particular comet again, and it’s definitely worth going out and seeing.”

    Contact Keith Matheny: [email protected].

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    Idris Bevan
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