Returning after crossing the Sun, Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas will be visible from across the northern hemisphere on the afternoon of Saturday, October 12, and throughout “about ten days”as it continues its journey that began millions of years ago. Visible with the naked eye in the southern hemisphere in September, C/2023 A3 (its rigorous nomenclature) was seen again on Friday night in North America, says Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at the Côte d’Azur Observatory in southern France. .
Meanwhile, “We could not observe it when it was between the Earth and the Sun”near where it is at risk of disappearing, especially affected by the solar storm that reached Earth on Thursday causing the northern lights.
The small body of rock and ice was detected in January 2023 by China’s Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan), giving it the first half of its name. The second is due to the confirmation of its existence by a telescope from the South African Atlas program.
A long trail of luminous dust
When comets approach our star, the ice contained in their core sublimates and releases a long trail of dust that reflects sunlight. It is then said that the comet degasses, with the formation of a characteristic hair, the coma, sometimes with the risk of disintegrating.
Tsuchinshan-Atlas will be visible from Saturday throughout the northern hemisphere and will be visible every night. “a little higher” in the sky, observable when looking west “for ten days”considers Lagadec. But “Every day its brightness will diminish a little” as it moves away from the Sun, the astrophysicist warns.
Unless there are obstacles in its path that modify its trajectory, Tsuchinshan-Atlas follows an orbit that should not bring it closer to Earth for another 80,000 years, says this comet specialist. According to the comet’s orbit and some models, it is estimated that it could have traveled up to 400,000 times the Earth-Sun distance before reaching us. The duration of the trip is measured in millions of years for this comet that probably saw its light in the Oort cloud, a hypothetical and gigantic group of tiny planets and celestial bodies, at the edge of the Solar System.
